Purple Arrow
by dragonprincess1988
Summary: Roy encounters a 15 year old Lian from a different Earth. *Spoilers for Cry for Justice 7*
1. Chapter 1

There were a lot of things that Roy Harper had never expected to have happen to him...losing an arm being one of them, but you get over certain things. What you don't get over is having a 15-year-old girl who claims to be your daughter from an alternate Earth staring at you with a glare that any of the Bats would be proud of, and leveling a--is that a purple arrow?--at your head.

The girl is dressed from head to toe in something that looks like some version of his Red Arrow costume, except that hers is dark blue and purple. Her mask looks more like Robin's though, and that's probably the oddest part. She's got on nice heavy boots, and clearly the costume is very well made. He can tell from here that she's got more amour on than he does, but it clearly doesn't hinder any of her movements. Roy thinks that she wouldn't look out of place with a cape on, which he knows is an extremely odd thought to have right now. Her costume looks like something that the Bats would wear, which is pretty much the biggest warning sign that he's ever seen. He knows that he should be on his guard right now. "Hi ya, dad." The girl smiles at him with a Cheshire grin.

Roy has to force himself to glare…has to force himself not to just gather the girl into a hug, because she even sounds like his little girl. "I'm not your father." Roy grits out, because well, anything else and he would a sobbing mess on the ground.

"Well, that's obvious. My dad…the Roy Harper from my world…he died when I was a kid."

That makes Roy's heart clench a little more, because there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't wish it would have been him. "I see…so, what do you call yourself?"

She laughs at him, and he's finding it harder and harder to stand. It's so much like his little girl that he wants to just run in the other direction, curl up on his floor, and weep. "Isn't it obvious?" She tilts her arrow at him a little more.

"Are you telling me that you seriously go by Purple Arrow?"

She nods at him and smirks as she puts the arrow away. "I just was never a red or green kinda girl. Plus, my dad never wanted me to look anything like a Robin."

Roy laughs, because that's something he can totally agree with. "I remember when my Lian was little and she told me that she wanted to be Robin when she grew up. I think my heart stopped for a good minute and a half."

She laughs with him for a moment before sobering. "So, I take it your Lian isn't in the life."

Roy shakes his head and tries to talk around the lump in his throat. "She…she didn't make it to your age."

The girl's eyes clearly widen behind the mask at that. "Oh…I…I'm so sorry. This has to be so hard for you. I mean, when I first saw you after I got out of that portal-like thing, I wanted to cry. You must be…" She bites her bottom lip. "I can't even imagine…"

"It's okay." It's not, and they both know it's not, but Roy is going to say whatever he has to to get her to stop biting her lip like that, because it shouldn't make him miss his little girl anymore than anything else, but it does. It's so much worse seeing mannerisms that remind him so much of his Lian, who never got to even try her hand at the Arrow thing. Roy's not naïve…he knows that if Lian had lived, she would have become an Arrow, and she would have been great at it, too.

The girl in front of him, and he isn't about to refer to her as Lian any time in the near future if he can help it, steps closer to him. "I can go, if that would be better for you. I'm sure there's a bat cave around here somewhere, and I'm sure Grandpa Bruce--if he's still alive--can help me get home."

Roy blinks at that a few times because even if she is a Lian Harper, and 15, and in the life, she still shouldn't be trying to do what's best for him when she's the one on a new Earth and dealing with seeing a guy who looks just like her dead dad. Unfortunately, Roy knows that he isn't really coping well, and he doesn't really know what to say or do, so just ignoring her question seems to be the best option for him. "Um…are you close to big grim and creepy in your world?"

She throws her head back and laughs. After a few moments she composes herself again. "Um, yeah, actually after you and most of my aunts and uncles died in my world, Grandpa Bruce raised me."

Roy isn't sure if he's allowed to have a brain aneurism on her actual dad's behalf, because he can't even imagine what would have happened had Bruce been left to raise his little girl--and what he can imagine terrifies him. "I…I'm not even sure what to say to that. The only question I can even think to ask is how you ended up as an Arrow at all."

She smiles as she folds her arms over her chest. "Well, Grandpa Bruce was really hoping I would end up as Batgirl or something, but Uncle Tim talked him into letting me chose my own identity…or at least that's how he put it to Grandpa Bruce. Uncle Tim already had the Purple Arrow costume made and my weapons ready. He knew that I would want to be like my dad."

Roy nods, because that actually explains a lot. Tim would take the time to make sure Roy's daughter was well prepared for whatever she encountered, and the amount of amour, overall appearance, and sheer amount of weaponry has Tim's signature all over it. "Are you close to your Uncle Tim? My Lian wasn't really. I mean, he babysat her sometimes, and he definitely cared for her, and she certainly loved him, but this Tim…well, he had been going through a lot before my little girl died. I know he regrets not spending more time with her, but I'm pretty sure that we all do."

The girl's smile doesn't really fade, but Roy could tell that she was probably imagining what her life would have been like without her Tim, and it clearly wasn't a good thing. "Yeah, I'm really close to my Uncle Tim. He trained me more than anyone, helped me deal with my dad's death, and kept me from killing Grandpa Bruce when he got overly…."

"Battish?"

"Protective."

Roy grins because…yeah, he could definitely see that. "Are you close to your Uncle Dick, as well?" Roy had always thought that if anyone was going to take care of his daughter when he died that it was definitely going to be Dick--if there were no Arrows who could.

She shakes her head remorsefully. "I was when I was younger, but he died when my father did. Uncle Tim said that he wasn't surprised that they went out together, since they were always getting into trouble together."

Roy hums to himself in confirmation of that. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure no matter what Earth you go to, at one point or another there is a Dick Grayson and Roy Harper causing trouble."

The girl laughs lightly at that before biting her lip uncertainly for a moment. "Is your Dick Grayson still alive?"

Roy nods enthusiastically. "You bet, although I'm not really sure how. I swear he thinks gravity is optional for him."

She grins a little at that. "Do you think maybe I could meet him?"

Roy thinks about that for a moment. On one hand, Dick would probably kill him for not letting him meet a Lian Harper who was raised by the Bats, but on the other hand, if Dick has half as hard a time seeing this girl as Roy does, Dick might want to punch him in the face. The girl looks really hopeful, though, and it's confirmed that no Lian Harper can be denied when using that pout. "Yeah, I mean, we'll have to go to the bat cave anyway to figure out how to get you home." Roy's not stupid. He knows he's justifying it, and that it's a lame way to justify such a thing, but she looks happy, so he can't really care.

She smiles so brightly at him that he thinks his heart is going to explode, and he's back to feeling like he's going to sob at any moment; but before either of those things can happen she's back to looking at him uncertainly. "Will I get to meet this world's Tim, too?"

"Yeah, I don't see how we could possibly avoid him if we're going to the bat cave. It's almost like he never leaves the damn cave now-a-days."

She frowns deeply at him. "That's not right. Granted I don't know this world's Tim, but I'm pretty sure no world's Tim should spend so much time underground. My Uncle Tim…well, if he spends too much time in the cave, it's bad. It means that he's brooding about Uncle Dick's death. He usually leaves the brooding about dad's death to me, though."

Roy ran a hand (the non robotic one) through his hair. "Do you, um, brood often?"

She laughs at him for a good long moment. "Let me guess, you're worried because brooding is a Bat trait, right?"

Roy's mouth twitches into a small grin at that. "Well, yeah. I mean, clearly I don't know your dad, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want his little girl picking up too many Bat traits."

She shakes her head at him, and a few strands of dark hair fall out of her ponytail. "I don't think Uncle Tim would let that happen anyway. He always makes sure I know that I'm an Arrow, and act appropriately, which basically means playing pranks on Grandpa Bruce and keeping both of them from getting too grouchy."

Roy laughs again, because that's pretty much what he's been doing for the last couple of years, too--but he's not willing to examine whether that's more to distract himself than anything else. "So, I guess we should probably head to Gotham, and then try to get you home, huh?"

She raises an eyebrow at him as she folds her arms over her chest, and Roy knows…just _knows_ that she learned that from her Uncle Tim. "You know, if this is too weird or too difficult for you I can totally find my own way to Gotham. I assume maps work the same way in this world."

Roy shakes his head, because the one thing he had hoped his little girl would never pick up was Tim's dry sarcasm and monotone voice, which this Lian seems to have down pat. "No, it's fine, really. Besides, if Dick found out I let a Lian Harper find her way to Gotham on her own when I know damn well where to take her, I'd never hear the end of it. You don't want to be responsible for a Bat giving an Arrow a lecture on proper etiquette, do you?"

She smirks at him evilly, and it looks like a weird cross between his Lian's evil smirk and Tim's. It's actually a little hard to watch. "I might want to see such an event. I mean, I'm pretty much the last Arrow there is in my world."

"Oh…" Roy isn't really sure what to say to that, because he can't even imagine a world like that. "I can't even imagine what kind of disaster could take out so many of us."

The girl shrugs. "I don't know. Uncle Tim won't let me read or watch any of the news articles from that terrible day. He always tells me that he does his best to prepare me for every conceivable scenario, and unconceivable ones, too, but sometimes there are just some things we can't avoid. And trust me; I've tried breaking every lock he's got. I've tried accessing the data from other computers, but he was trained by Oracle, so I've kinda just accepted that I'm screwed."

"I doubt your dad would want you seeing that stuff anyway."

She shrugs at him again. "I don't know, but I feel like I have a right to see it."

Roy nods, and feels like he should be feeling some variety of uncomfortable here, but he's just not. "I'm sure your Uncle Tim is just trying to protect you. He's probably already sifted through everything he could find about what happened and has probably done everything in his power to prepare you for such things, but doesn't see any reason for you to dwell."

She folds her arms over her chest again, and Roy is really starting to wonder if she once had a costume with a cape, because it just seems to fit with her stance, or maybe that's just something else she picked up from her Tim. "Because he's doing enough dwelling for the both of us. I hear you, but it doesn't make me any less angry."

"I bet, but give him some slack. I don't know how old your Tim is, but I doubt he was ready for his big brother and a bunch of his friends to die. I'm sure he's just doing his best."

She sighs and lets her arms fall to her sides again. "Yeah, I know he is, but sometimes it's just damn irritating, and Grandpa Bruce can just be so damn overbearing sometimes. It's really frustrating when they both go all…'we're just trying to keep you safe' on my ass."

Roy nods in understanding. "I can see how that could get annoying, and I definitely feel like I should be saying something here about 'language, young lady,' but well…it's not like I'm your father." And that last bit was more of a reminder for himself than anything else. Because it would just be so easy to pretend like he hadn't lost his entire world the day that Lian died. It'd be so easy to just take this girl home and pretend like his daughter was just missing for a really long time, but he can't. He knows he can't, because this Lian has a family on a different Earth, who is probably going crazy because she's missing...especially since that family is a family of Bats, and that's just so wrong, and yet so right.

She's staring down at the ground, when Roy finally remembers that he needs to stop having minor mental breakdowns while this girl is here, standing in front of him, dealing so much better than he is. "Um, yeah, you're not my dad, but is it wrong that I really wouldn't mind it if you reprimanded me for my language?"

Roy shakes his head, and feels his heart break all over again. He's been spending this entire time referring to her as 'the girl' in his head because he can't handle thinking of her as Lian, but that doesn't change the fact that she _is_ a Lian Harper, and she misses her father just like he misses his baby girl. Before he can stop himself Roy is pulling her into a hug. "You should really watch your language."

The girl laughs and it's a pained noise…sharp and anguished as she wraps her arms around him tightly. "I miss him so much."

Roy lays his chin on the top of her head as he pets her ponytail. "I know you do, sweetie. I miss my baby girl too."

She lets out a breath, and he can tell that she's trying to control her breathing…trying to hold back the tears, which…she was raised by Bats, so that's not nearly as wrong as Roy thinks it should be, but he can't let her do that for his own sake. "Let it out, baby girl."

She clutches at him, and squeezes him even tighter as she lets the first few tears fall. "I…I didn't want to do this in front of you. I wanted to be strong."

"I know you did, but that's not necessary." Roy is completely overlooking the fact that he wants to break down and cry now, too, but he allows himself to strengthen the embrace.

"But you have to be hurt too…unless….unless I don't look like her. I mean, you look just like him. Did…did your Lian look more like you and less like her mother?"

Roy shakes his head and he can't keep the tears from falling either. "No, you look just like her, albeit older."

She presses her face into his chest. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry. I don't want to be a painful reminder for you." The girl's voice is muffled by his shirt.

"I know. It's not your fault, kiddo, and I know I'm probably an equally painful reminder for you too."

"Yeah, but…"

Roy pulls back enough that she can see his eyes. He doesn't really remember when he took off the mask, but it was probably sometime after a 15-year-old Lian Harper showed up pointing a purple arrow at him and sometime before his brain broke completely. "Don't…don't tell me how you were raised by Bats and you're expected to be better. You're still just a kid, and no, I don't want to hear anything about how you're 15, because that's still a kid in my book."

She nods once, just the way Tim does when he's not in the mood to argue, and then lays her head back on his chest. After a few moments she pulls away, and clearly has to readjust her mask. "So, how are we getting to Gotham?"

Roy wants to cringe at how good she is at going from emotional teenager to perfectly professional in seconds. No kid should be able to do that. It doesn't matter that she's probably more Bat kid than Arrow. "Well, I think it's probably better if we go in civvies. There really isn't any reason to call the wrong type of attention to ourselves."

She gives another curt nod, like she's taking orders, and Roy really isn't comfortable with that expression. He never really has been, not from anyone who wasn't on his team anyway, but he can't help but think that maybe it's better than the way they were interacting before. Well, maybe better isn't the right word for it, but Roy is certain that it's easier. "If you tell me where to meet you I can get some civilian clothes, and then we can leave."

Roy is fairly certain that having her meet him at his home would just be difficult, awkward, and bad for both of them; even if it isn't anything like the one he had in Star City. He gives her directions to a place not far from his current residence. He'll need to gather a few supplies before the trip, and it's just easier than trying to find somewhere easy to find, but not too easy to find. She nods again, the way Tim does when he's working a case with Roy and he's just about to…Roy's thought trails off as he watches her give him a small smile before jumping off the roof. Exactly the way Tim would.

Roy is pretty sure he's never going to get used to a Lian that acts so much like the Bats, and he's almost a little grateful that he really won't have to for long, because Tim is good at that computer stuff and the other Bats will certain help get this Lian back to where she belongs, and probably in a hurry too. He thinks that maybe he should be concerned that this Lian has picked up so many of Tim's mannerisms and so few of Bruce's. Not that he thinks any Lian should act like Bruce in any way, shape, or form, but that has to mean that Bruce isn't in a position to teach her…not the way that he did with the others in his care anyway. Then again, maybe that Bruce was just completely against training her, so he left it up to Tim. Roy has a sneaking suspicion that the answer is closer to the first one though. He can't imagine a crisis that could take out so many heroes and leave a Batman all in one piece.

Roy mentally shakes his head and forces himself to stop thinking about it. He needs to focus on the task at hand, and right now that task is getting a 15-year-old Lian Harper from a very different world to Gotham. He can handle that…or so he hopes.

The End (for now)


	2. Chapter 2

She steps through the portal, and promptly lands on her ass--on a rooftop in a city that obviously isn't the one that she was in a minute ago. She really wasn't expecting that one. Sure, she hadn't really tried to dodge that weird green spiral coming towards her, but in her defense, the last thing that she thought it was going to do was teleport her somewhere where…where her father is apparently still alive. Her chest constricts and she's trying to remember the breathing exercises Uncle Tim taught her, but it's too much. The guy steps closer to her, obviously weary of the chick with purple arrows. She scrambles to her feet, and pulls out one of her arrows. She doesn't know if he caught her minor freak out, but she covers with a, "Hi ya, dad."

The conversation that ensues isn't one that Uncle Tim would approve of. He doesn't like it when she gives more information than is strictly necessary, but she is an Arrow…not a Bat, after all, so she can get away with it. The guy, who she isn't going to refer to as dad--because he's not--and at some point she's going to stop wanting to cry every time he uses the term 'baby girl, sweetie, or kiddo,' tells her that he'll take her to Gotham. And she's happy about that because she really doesn't want to fumble around a different Earth looking for a bunch of Bats, but she can't imagine being stuck in a car with him for who only knows how long. She's already broken down in front of this man once, and she really doesn't want to do it again.

It doesn't matter what he said. She was raised by Bats, and she is expected to be better--not to mention the fact that she thought she was over her dad's death. Who knew that it would only take one glance at a different Roy Harper to get her to act like the teary teenager that she usually isn't. Lian jumps off the roof after her encounter with the one-armed Roy she just met--and she desperately wants to ask how the hell that happened. But despite what Aunt Barbara says, she does actually know what the word tact means. So, when she gets down to ground level, Lian gives herself a few moments in the alley to just have a freak out. She needs to find some way to deal with the fact that while that man may look, sound, and hell…smell like her father, he isn't. She does one of her favorite meditations and then heads for…the hell if she knows what she's heading for.

Lian takes a moment to review what the man had said. She's trying to keep her mind on her mission, which would be civilian clothes and then meet her not-dad, but her mind seems to want to focus on that hug. It was just like when she was little and hugged her dad. The strength of it was the same as it was when she had spent a week away at summer camp, and…and she can't let herself think about that. She needs to move…needs to find a place to get civilian clothes in this strange world, and maybe she should have just left with her not-dad, despite how difficult that would have been. And it would probably help her cause if her mind could stop using that phrasing to refer to him. His name is Roy. She can handle calling him Roy in her own head…even if she can't do it out loud yet.

Lian takes a calming breath and then moves out of the alley. She figures that all cities have pretty much the same setup, or at least that's what she's going with right now. So, she heads toward the most likely place to find a shopping mall. If she loses the mask, undoes her pony tail, hides her more obvious weapons, and removes some of her amour she can pass as a regular teenage girl trying to look slightly creepy. Tim had designed the suit that way on purpose, and she's never been more grateful for that than right now.

She stashes her stuff on a roof inside a vent, and then makes her way to a nearby store. Lian gets in and gets what she needs, with some girl with far too much make-up on commenting on her boots. The girl is asking more questions than Lian feels is strictly necessary to make a simple purchase, but she knows how to play nice. She tells the girl that her uncle got them for her as a present and she has no idea where he got them. It's not really a lie, not that she's ever had any problem telling those. The girl seems to accept the answer and hands Lian the bag far too slowly for Lian's taste. She's back on the roof and dressed in plain jeans and a blue t-shirt with nothing on it. She never did like being a walking billboard. Besides, Uncle Tim makes it very clear that nondescript is almost always better.

She finds the coffee shop where the guy…Roy…she needs to start referring to him as Roy…had told her to meet him at. She's early…she's always early, so she orders herself a hot chocolate and waits. She doesn't like coffee…never has. The fact that it has more to do with the way it reminds her of her father means absolutely nothing. Roy walks in after she has finished half of her hot chocolate. He orders his coffee--the same exact way her father would have--and sits down across from her. He takes a sip and clearly enjoys it. She bites the inside of her cheek to keep from showing how much that hurts. "Well, I called Dick to let him know I'd be stopping by with someone I wanted him to meet. I didn't think trying to explain this over the phone would end well."

She nods once and reminds herself that she was raised by her very own set of Bats. She can get through this. She knows she can. "So, are we ready to go then?"

He laughs and takes another sip of his coffee. "Yeah, just about, but there really is no need to be in such a hurry. We can stop and get you some more stuff before we leave. Who knows how long you'll be stuck here? This finding the right Earth thing can take awhile."

She hums to herself, because…well, she knew that, but she's not really sure how long she can stand being in a world where her father isn't dead. "I think I'd be more comfortable shopping in Gotham."

Roy raises his eyebrow at her for a moment. "Oh, I guess you would be. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that you were raised as a Gotham girl."

She swallows hard at that, because she knows exactly what her father would have to say about that. She wants to bite her lip, clench her fists, and just scream--but she won't. She was trained to control her emotional, physical, and facial reactions. She can certainly be professional right now, except the guy seems to get even weirder when she's like that. Lian is starting to think that maybe showing facial expressions and just being the 15-year-old girl she really isn't allowed to be back home is okay right now, but she doesn't want to make this any harder for him. But maybe that's a lie…maybe she doesn't want to make it any harder for herself, because right now, as much as she wants to get back to her Grandpa Bruce, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Barbara, she also really wants to see how else this world is different from her own.

She brushes her hair out of her face and tucks it behind her ear. She forgot to tie her hair back, and now she's paying for it. Roy laughs at something, she's not really sure what, and then downs the rest of his drink, which she's pretty sure was almost completely full. She's not really sure how he managed to do that without burning his entire mouth, throat, and esophagus, and she's pretty sure she doesn't want to know. "Well, come on, kiddo. Let's get you to Gotham."

She stands quietly and grabs the shopping bag, which now has her costume in it--she can only imagine what Uncle Tim would have to say about that one--and follows Roy out to his car. She silently congratulates herself on the fact that she can now refer to him as Roy inside her head and only want to vomit a little bit. He opens the passenger side door for her, and if he was anyone else…looked like anyone else, she'd glare at him and tell him about where he could stick his chivalry, but she remembers how her father used to do the same thing and call her princess in such an endearing tone. She gets into the car and mutters a small thank you. He grins at her, and that hurts too. She remembers when her father used to grin at her like that.

Roy gets into the car and just starts driving. The two of them are silent for awhile, and she thinks she has a fairly good idea why he's being quiet, but she doesn't know for certain. He had said that she looks just like his daughter, so at least she isn't the only one being faced with someone who brings back such painful memories--although she's fairly certain he's worse for her. After all, he looks exactly the same as her father did before he died, sans the robotic arm. "How'd that happen?" She gestures to the arm in question, and well…maybe her Aunt Barbara was right about that whole lack of tact thing.

He gulps audibly, and she's pretty sure that he's now a few shades whiter. She's about to tell him that he doesn't have to tell her, when he starts speaking. "When I lost Lian…well, she wasn't the only thing I lost…just the only thing that mattered…" She could tell that he was trying very hard to form words after that, but it just wasn't coming.

"It's okay." She places a hand over his right one. "I…I shouldn't have asked. Aunt Barbara is always telling me how I'm like my father with the whole lack of a filter thing. Usually that makes me grin, but sometimes it can…"

"Get you into a lot of trouble? Oh, trust me, I know."

She laughs, because she does actually remember her father saying something similar once. The two of them return to their silence until they reach Gotham, and it's confirmed that all Gothams look pretty much the same. Some people might call it dreary, but she can't help but feel at home.

Roy checks them into a hotel and explains that while they had to come to Gotham in civilian garb to keep Batman happy they are expected at the cave in costume come nightfall. Lian takes the opportunity to get her costume out of the shopping bag and clean it. She's in the process of cleaning one of her boots, with the rest of the costume scattered around the room in various states of clean, dirty, and drying when she hears Roy whistle. "When I first saw you I thought your suit looked like some weird version of mine, but now that I see it in pieces I can tell it's far more complicated than mine. I mean, it looks like it fits together as one very complicated jigsaw puzzle."

She grins at him. "It pretty much does. Uncle Tim jokes that it's as much for my protection as it is for my 'protection'."

Roy laughs good and hard for a moment. "I'm not really sure I want to think about your suit as a giant chastity belt, but I feel certain that your father would approve. And I'm considering telling the Bats that they should probably get this Tim to design some of the younger heroes' costumes, but he might make them so complicated that they can't get into them."

Lian chuckles softly to herself as she moves onto another piece of her suit. "This is actually the third design. The first two took me nearly 30 minutes to get into."

That gets her another laugh, and she likes it. It's been so long since she's gotten to see people really laugh…not the controlled version of laughter that Uncle Tim, Grandpa Bruce, and Aunt Barbara do. It's like the three of them forget how to just let their bodies do what they want and give a whole-hearted laugh; but from what she's read, it's pretty obvious that it's been that way for the three of them since Uncle Dick and her dad died, along with the others.

When night comes, she's fully dressed and waiting for Roy on the roof. When he finally gets his butt up there, he places a hand on her shoulder, and that's not nearly as familiar seeming as the hug, but it still makes her skin itch all the same. "I bet you're in a hurry to get home, right?"

Lian thinks that his voice sounds odd. It's clearly sad, but there's something else, too. She's not really sure what to do with it, so she plays it off. Uncle Tim always tells her how good she is at that. She gives him a big grin before readying her grapple gun. "I think I'm more anxious to see what this bat cave looks like. I'm totally in the mood to compare it to the one back home."

Roy looks like he's giving her a full body scan before he smiles back at her. "It figures that the only thing that could out do the bat cave is another bat cave."

Lian really just wants to jump off the roof already. She hates waiting, and wants to be moving. The faster they get to the cave, the better she'll feel. She knows the cave will most likely be completely different from the one back home, but she has a feeling that if just being in a Gotham could make her feel more relaxed, then being in a bat cave has to be better than that. She brandishes her grappling gun at him. "Okay, okay, are we ready to go?"

Roy smiles at her as he shakes his head. "Are you always this impatient?"

She nods her head, because yeah, pretty much. "Tim is always trying to get me to work on that. I swear that sometimes he has me do surveillance on completely empty buildings just to get me used to being bored out of my mind."

Roy laughs again, and listening to that laugh is great…and yet heartbreaking all at the same time. Her dad used to laugh like that. She may not actually remember his laugh all that well, but she feels almost certain that it was like this…just so open and free. She hasn't heard anything like it in so long. He's at the edge of the roof before she even notices that he's moved. "Well, are you coming?" He's off the roof before she can even respond, and she knows that if she was back home right now she'd be getting a lecture in her ear about paying attention--but to be fair, she doesn't get lectures like that very often anymore, and she's pretty sure Aunt Barbara would understand and maybe give her some slack on this one.

After all, it's not every day that you get thrown into a different world where your dad is still alive--and she has to stop herself from calling him her dad, because he's not. And it doesn't matter that she really wouldn't mind staying in this world for a while just to learn more about him. She wants to get to know everything she can about him. She wants to know what kind of cereal he eats, and if he likes strawberry jam on his toast like she does, and so many other things, but she can't. She can't bring herself to ask him any of that, and she knows…just _knows_ she can't stay long enough to find out on her own because…because she had a dad, but he's dead, and this Roy had a daughter…but she's dead, too. But Lian knows that she needs to get back to her world, too, despite how cold and lonely that world may be, because…because she still has family there…just not real family.

She knows it's not fair to refer to Grandpa Bruce, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Barbara as anything else but real family, because they did raise her, and they have kept her safe, and they gave her a chance to be a hero…a chance to meet a guy who isn't her father, but very well could be. None of that changes the fact that none of them are blood and none of them are her dad, and it really doesn't matter to her right now that this Roy Harper isn't her dad either, because he even moves the same, despite having a robotic arm. Lian may know that it's childish and useless, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to pretend that she belongs here…pretend that this is her real world and that the place that she came from was just a trial run or something. She wants to just take this Roy back with her and call it a day, but she knows that isn't even remotely possible.

Unfortunately, Lian has never been as good at blocking out certain wants, thoughts, and desires the way that Uncle Tim is, and that thought stings just a bit more than it should because…well, because she knows that Tim has done his best to be what Lian needs, do what she needs, and to give her what she needs to stay alive--the costume is an excellent example of that--but Uncle Tim can't and never will be her father, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, it's not like her Uncle Tim has ever tried to be anything more than just her uncle, and it doesn't matter that this Roy may never be her father either because…because he's already treated her the same way her father did in so many ways. He's already shown her that he has all of the potential to be exactly what she's missing in her life, and she knows that all she has to do to get what she wants is to make him see it that way, too. She wants her dad, and she knows that isn't possible, but she's pretty sure she can manage to get someone damn close to him, and really, at this point, that's all she needs.

The end (for now)


	3. Chapter 3

Roy can feel her eyes on him the entire way to the cave, and he knows it's more than just her following him. He isn't sure what she's seeing, but his neck is itching and he wants to tell her to knock it off, but he can't. Roy knows she probably can't help it…just like he knows he needs to start actually coping at any moment. He gave himself some slack for their first conversation, because he's pretty sure even the Bats would be thrown by something like that, but now? There's no excuse for his inability to just get through this now. Roy really wants to find a heavy object to brain himself with, because there is no reason for his stunning lack of composure.

It was bad enough that just seeing her fighting to keep her hair out of her face at the coffee shop made him down the rest of his coffee in one swig just so he wouldn't break down right there, but he's not even looking at her…can't even tell how far back she is, and he's still having trouble focusing. It's a damn good thing that the route to the cave is almost as familiar as going home for him, because he's pretty sure that's the only thing that keeps him from missing and having to double back more than once.

The two of them reach their destination in one piece, and it isn't the first time that Roy has been extremely grateful for muscle memory, but he's not even tired, so he doesn't really have any excuses right now. Dick is there to greet them, and well…that's good, too, he supposes. "Who's your new associate?"

Roy glares at him. They got Bruce back and Dick is back in the Nightwing suit--wearing it right now, in fact--so there's really no reason for that attitude. Or maybe Roy is just glaring because the moment Dick used the word associate his brain supplied him with far too many images of things that can never happen because he needs to send this Lian home. "She's not my associate. She's…" And Roy isn't really sure how to finish that sentence, and he's really glad (possibly more than he should be) that he doesn't have to, because she finishes it for him.

She takes off her mask, and removes her pony tail holder before shaking out her hair. "Hi, I'm Lian Harper…clearly, from a different Earth." She says it matter-of-factly as she holds out her hand, and Roy isn't really sure why he thought she'd say it any other way. He keeps having to remind himself that she was raised by Bats, because when he doesn't, she does things like that, and he really doesn't need his brain to break anymore than it already has.

Dick, for his part, just looks wide-eyed, as if he has no idea what to do with this new information. Roy wants to say something to make it better, but he's pretty sure that isn't even possible. After a few moments, Dick takes her hand. "Hi, I'm Nightwing."

"Dick Grayson…I know. My Uncle Tim talks about you a lot…when it isn't too painful."

Dick raises an eyebrow. "Too painful."

Lian's brow furrows at that for a second. "Oh, right, I forgot. He didn't tell you anything. In my world, you and Roy are dead, along with a whole slew of other people. Grandpa Bruce raised me after my father's death. Aunt Barbara keeps trying to get me interested in the technical side of our life, but I don't think that's ever going to happen, and Uncle Tim trains me. We patrol together as much as possible." She says it so easily…like that's something she tells people every day.

Dick's jaw doesn't drop, but Roy can tell that it wants to. "So, um…I guess you're hoping we can send you back, huh?"

Lian gives him a really small smile and shrugs, and Roy's pretty sure that she just made that gesture to make Dick feel more comfortable, which is an odd thing to watch. He really wants to have a talk with her about picking up her Uncle Tim's bad habits, but that really isn't his place. "I was really hoping I could look around your cave first."

Dick grins at her. "You want to compare it to yours, don't you?"

She nods enthusiastically. "So, do you mind? I mean, I know Uncle Tim would have a fit if some strange girl from another world wanted to start poking around our cave."

There's a small snort of laughter behind Dick. "I can certainly understand that way of thinking."

Lian's eyes light up, so clearly this world's Tim sounds the same as hers, but Roy is still amazed at how much it hurts to see a Lian Harper that excited about seeing…well, hearing Tim. Not because he's a Bat, but because his Lian was just never that close to this Tim. Tim steps out from behind Dick, and Lian is moving before he's even all the way into the light. "Oh man, you look just like my Tim, albeit in a different costume." She's circling him, and seems to be very interested in his cape. "Do you mind?" She gestures to the cape in question, and Tim just nods at her. She touches the cape like she's inspecting what it's made out of. "This seems to be exactly the same as his though." She seems to catch herself and steps away from him. "Sorry," she mutters.

Tim breathes out a laugh. "It's okay. Do you want me to show you around?"

She gives him that enthusiastic nod again, and Roy's heart aches again, because that nod is all Arrow. "Would you please?"

Tim gestures for her to follow, and walks away. After a few moments, when Dick's sure that the two of them are far enough away not to hear, he takes off his mask and turns to Roy. "So, how are you dealing with this?"

Roy isn't really sure how to answer that, because he doesn't think he's dealing at all. "Who? Me? I'm dealing just fine. Yeah, no problems here, and I certainly don't feel like my head's going to explode at any moment."

Dick laughs at him for a moment before clasping a hand on his shoulder. "I'd be worried if you didn't think your head was going to explode. I mean, she looks just like her, Roy."

"I…I know…"

"Man, how are you dealing with that? I mean, I'm freaking here, and she isn't even my daughter."

"She's not mine either." Roy figures if he just keeps saying it, eventually the pain will go away, because she's not his daughter, but he really wouldn't mind it if she was. He wants to see her fight, and shoot an arrow, and…okay, he could live without seeing her geometry homework or whatever else she's doing right now, but…but he can't think about that, because she has to go home. Roy's reasonably sure that if he keeps reminding himself that she has a home, and a family, and people who are missing her like crazy, then this won't be so hard for him, but so far all evidence points to the fact that it actually makes it harder. It'd be so easy to just make her stay here if there weren't people waiting for her on whatever Earth she came from.

Roy wants to bash his head against a wall, because he's fairly certain that this whole experience isn't actually supposed to drive him crazy. And he wants to laugh hysterically at that, because he's not sure that he was ever actually sane. Roy has to stop thinking after that because he hears laughter, and he's about two seconds away from committing himself before he realizes that it's Dick's laughter, and that he's laughing at something that's going on behind Roy.

When Roy turns, he wants to laugh too--or cry--because Tim and Lian are sparring, and she even moves like an Arrow/Bat hybrid. It'd be interesting to watch if it wasn't so damn alarming. Tim pins her, but not for long. She's very good, but Roy can tell that Tim is just testing her to see what she knows, and find out exactly how extensive her training is back home. Lian dances around him for a moment, and playfully pulls his cowl off. Tim snorts out a laugh, and hits her in the ribs--probably too lightly to be felt through her armor. She laughs and spins away. Tim pulls a move that Roy knows he just recently learned from Bruce, because he was here working with Dick when Bruce was teaching him. The move catches Lian completely off guard, and that pretty much confirms for Roy that Bruce has very little to do with her training.

The spar ends quickly enough. After all, Tim still has to patrol later tonight, and while all of the Bats can and have done that while extremely sore, there's no reason for any of them to put themselves through unnecessary pain. Lian stays on the mats to stretch while Tim goes over to the computer. He stretches a little before sitting down. Dick walks over toward Tim, and Roy takes that as his cue to go learn more about her. "So, exactly what type of state is your Bruce in?" Roy hadn't actually meant to lead with that question, but well…Harpers are known for a certain level of tactlessness for a reason.

"Huh?" She looks up at him from her place on the ground. "What do you mean?"

Roy sits down on the mats as well. He doesn't like feeling like he's talking down to her, and it doesn't actually matter that this is probably something that he would have done with his Lian. It's even more irrelevant that just sitting down on the ground with her makes him feel better, and at any given moment his brain can just shut up about all of that. "Well, I noticed that your stance is more like Tim's than anyone else's. You also fight like him. So far, I haven't even seen an ounce of Bruce's fighting style in you, which leads me to assume that he's unable to train you."

She bites her lip, and he's pretty sure that she's telling herself that she shouldn't be telling him any of this, and maybe that's true, but he doesn't actually care. After a moment of indecision, she starts speaking. "I don't know what type of villains you have here, but in my world, one of the worst people you can face is Harley Quinn. She's truly sadistic, and has a gift for delivering pain in unique and horrible ways. I'd rather go up against her pathetic excuse of a boyfriend--Joker--any day. He's like a crazily dressed lackey. I'm not really sure what's up with that guy, but he's like a lovesick puppy. But, I'm not really sure how anyone could love such an evil, crazy bitch. Anyway, one night when I was still young, Harley captured Grandpa Bruce, and tortured him. It took Uncle Tim almost a week to find him. That was one of the worst weeks of my life, and when Uncle Tim finally found Grandpa Bruce…well, Grandpa Bruce was in pretty bad shape. There are a lot of things that she did which I'm not allowed to know about, but one of things I do know is that she took a crowbar to his elbows and knees." Lian closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before continuing. "So, needless to say, he isn't really capable of teaching me the physical stuff, but he's great for all the mentally taxing things."

Roy thinks that it's okay for him to be a little horrified by that, because he can't imagine Harley Quinn being anything more than a nuisance, but on the other hand, he really can't imagine The Joker being nothing more than a lackey, so he guesses it's all kind of the same in the end. "Your world seems to be very…gruesome."

She shrugs at him. "I guess. I mean, it's not like I have anything to compare it to."

Roy hums to himself for a moment. "I feel I should just warn you, just in case you're here for an extended amount of time. If you ever run into them here, Joker is the one you need to be wary of, and Harley--while still a threat--isn't anywhere near as bad as him."

She blinks at him a few times. "Really? I don't think I can imagine Joker being anything more than a good warm up."

Roy nods. "Trust me; sadistic freak doesn't being to cover it for him."

Before she gets a chance to respond, Tim walks over to where they're sitting on the mats and interrupts them. "Well, this whole finding a way to send you home thing is going to be complicated, not that I'm surprised by this, but I do still have to patrol tonight."

Roy is reasonably sure that Tim was about to say something after that, but Lian cuts in before he gets a chance. "Okay, I know how my Tim would play this, and I'm really hoping that you aren't going to force me to stay in the cave alone all night, bored out of my mind."

Tim stares at her for a moment. "Well, you wouldn't necessarily be alone. I'm sure Alfred wouldn't mind keeping you company."

She raises an eyebrow at him, and Roy knows Tim just registered that as one of his own expressions on this girl's face. "Your Alfred is still alive, too?"

Tim nods once. "Yeah, I take it yours isn't."

She shakes her head. "No, he died of lung cancer a couple years ago."

Tim raises an eyebrow at her, and Roy isn't really sure what expression is on his own face, but he knows that confusion and shock are probably warring for top gun. "Your Alfred was a smoker?" Roy feels at least slightly better that apparently Tim was surprised by that revelation as well.

Lian nods at him. "Yeah, he used to say that with Bruce, it was either drive him to drink or drive him to smoke, and he didn't think that his liver could take the liquor, so he chose to smoke. Um, doesn't yours?"

Dick bursts out into laughter from somewhere behind Tim. "Yeah, right, Alfred smoking…not at all likely, and surely not after Jason."

The three guys laugh together, because just the image of Alfred smoking is enough to make even Bruce crack a smile--maybe. Lian clears her throat to get their attention. "So, anyway, instead of spending the night bored out of my mind in the cave, could I go out on patrol with you?"

Roy can see the indecision on both Tim's and Dick's faces, but Lian's pouting again, so he's pretty sure that she's going to get what she wants. Roy is hoping that they let her go. At least then, he could get away from her for a while, maybe talk to Alfred, and find some way to deal. He knows that Alfred is good at making difficult times seem less complicated than they are. Plus, there's no reason he can't get a world-famous Alfred cookie while he's here.

When Roy sees Dick and Tim turn to each other for one of their silent conversations, he wants to pout, too, because now he really wants a cookie and time away from the really bright, really scary Arrow/Bat hybrid. And he probably shouldn't think about her in such a way, but it doesn't make his heart clench the way the name Lian does, and it doesn't matter that he's working on that because the whole world seems to be against him dealing. He believes that even more so when Dick and Tim decide that it would just be a great idea to have Roy patrol and Lian go with him, because even though Gotham isn't his home, he knows it well enough. Roy really wants to be petulant here and mention how upset Batman would be about this, but Batman and Robin are off world at the moment…and that's just Roy's luck.

He kind of wants to say something even more petulant here about how a one-armed man shouldn't be expected to go on patrol in a city that isn't even his own, but it took Roy months to get people to stop checking on him every five seconds, so he's not about to give that up simply because he's having problems coping. "Yeah, that sounds great." Roy hears his own voice say before he can come up with a proper excuse like, 'I'm tired and have a headache.'

Dick and Tim nod at him before Dick puts his mask back on and Tim pulls his cowl back up. Lian smiles at him brightly before she puts her mask back on and ties up her hair again. Roy is really considering just smashing his head against one of the cave walls until everything goes dark. Certainly he wouldn't be forced to cope anytime soon after something like that, and it's not like such an act would prove his insanity anymore than anything else he's done today. Roy forces himself not to sigh as he goes to do his normal weapons check before getting ready to leave. He may not be able to get out of this patrol, but the least he can do is be fully prepared to take out his frustrations on any stupid Gothamites that make the bad decision to be out doing something wrong tonight.

Roy is a little grateful, however, that he gets to take out one of the Bats' sweet bikes. It's not enough to make up for what he has to deal with for the next several hours, but it certainly helps. Lian gets on behind him, and wraps her arms around him tight, and for some stupid reason it makes him miss being able to hug his little girl. Roy revs the bike and speeds out of the cave. Normally he would worry about scaring anyone who was with him with his driving, but he feels fairly certain that she's used to this. After all, there's no transportation device that this Tim prefers over his bike. Roy wants to ask if she likes the bike too. He wants to know what her favorite color is, and if she gets good grades, and who her best friends are, and…he can live without knowing anything about boys, but he wants to ask her so many questions, but he can't. He can't get attached to this girl, because she's going home…where she belongs…with a bunch of Bats, and no Alfred. It doesn't matter how sad he thinks that is, or how lonely he thinks it must be, because…it's where she belongs, even if he doesn't really think that it's right, or fair, or good. That world is where she belongs, and she will get back there, even if it kills him.

The end (for now)


	4. Chapter 4

This cave is different from her own--she can tell because so many more people are in this cave on a regular basis. It's clean--well, as clean as a cave can be, but there are still subtle differences that just scream people. Family is here often enough to make an impact. Lian still finds being in this cave comfortable and refreshing--even if it is different--and she knows that her Uncle Tim would laugh and tell her that that's just the Bat in her. She thinks that maybe this Tim can tell that just being around him makes her relax; she isn't sure, but she thinks he's relaxed too.

It's not like Lian actually saw him before Tim decided how he was going to play this, but at least he seems willing to be--polite isn't the word and neither is less Bat; she knows that he's measuring every reaction she has to each part of the cave that he shows her, just like she knows that there are parts that he's not showing her. Lian doesn't actually know if her Tim would allow a strange person from another world any further into the cave than the entrance, but she does know that if he did, and if he decided to show that person around, her Tim would definitely keep from showing her certain parts of the cave, just like this Tim is doing now. She saw those cases, even if he didn't actually point them out to her. She would know cases like that anywhere. After all, her cave back home has a lot more of them.

Lian doesn't think about that--or at least she tries not to--because it doesn't matter how long ago all of those deaths happened. They still hurt, and it hurts to look at a case like that, even if there isn't one for Red Arrow down here. Lian isn't sure if her Grandpa Bruce decided to put a Red Arrow case in the cave or if Uncle Tim made him do so. She hasn't had the nerve to ask, and she doubts that she ever will, but she's grateful for it all the same.

She sees movement out of the corner of her eye, and she realizes that they're on the mats now. Tim has moved into a ready position. She raises an eyebrow at him, because she's pretty sure that there are a lot of things that her Uncle Tim would do with an alternate Lian, but she doesn't think sparring would come until after there were DNA tests and an interrogation. She's not extremely surprised that they skipped the DNA test, though. After all, they have no reason to believe she isn't who she says she is, and well…she saw all of their faces. It's not like Lian didn't believe Roy when he said that she looked just like his Lian, but seeing Dick's and Tim's faces pretty much confirmed that it wasn't just Roy. As far as an interrogation goes…well, she's not naïve. She knows that a spar is its own form of interrogation--at least it is if this Tim wants it to be.

She gives him a cocky grin as she moves into her own fighting stance. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

This Tim simply rolls his neck on his shoulders before signaling her to move. "Keep it light. I still have to patrol tonight."

Lian wants to ask if she can go with him, because at least that would maintain some semblance of normal for her, but she knows that now isn't the time to ask, so she nods and moves in. They dance around each other for a moment. He's clearly studying her, and Lian just wants to catalog all of the ways that he moves differently from her Tim. So far, she's only noticed that he seems to have even more of an aversion to touch than her Uncle Tim--and she's pretty sure that if she had enough time she could work most of that out of him. After all, she managed to do a decent job of that with her own Tim. She's never asked her Tim why he hates touch so much, and she's not sure she can ask this Tim that question either, but she really wants to, because… She's not stupid; she knows that her Tim puts up with all of the physical contact from her because he thinks that she needs it, which isn't exactly false; but she's pretty confident that he needs it too, whether he wants to admit it or not.

Tim pins her for a moment, but she's up before he can even pretend to make it more than just playful, and she likes playful sparring. She hasn't gotten to do that in a really long time, because her Uncle Tim is usually trying to teach her something to keep her alive, or just can't bring himself to move the way that he used to with her Uncle Dick. She remembers watching her Uncle Tim and Uncle Dick play-sparring. It was fun, and she misses it, albeit probably not as much as her Uncle Tim does. Her Tim doesn't do a lot of things that he used to with her Uncle Dick, and that makes Lian sad more often than not; but she learned a long time ago that there's nothing that she can do about that, especially since she's the same way when it comes to things that remind her of her father…like, for instance, spending time with a Roy who isn't her dad.

This Tim definitely has a lot of skills that he's not using right now--which is good, because it's not like she's paying attention on any level that would make her Uncle Tim any degree of pleased. She mentally shakes her head and tries to pay attention. Lian remembers that this is supposed to be a light spar, so she thinks it's okay to twist away when she normally would have blocked. This Tim looks like he wants to laugh at her, which makes her want to see his face, and well…there's really no reason why she can't pull down his cowl. He does laugh after that, and it's the same controlled little whisper of a laugh that her Tim does. The only difference is, this Tim's laugh doesn't sound so forced. It's a good sound overall, and she likes it. It's a far easier sound to listen to than this Roy's laughter.

When Tim hits her in the ribs after she pulls down his cowl, she feels it just enough to know that she was hit--even though it looked like it was going to be too light to feel through the armor--which is interesting. He clearly wanted her to know that, even if this isn't a real spar, she isn't actually supposed to leave herself open. Lian adjusts her stance for that, and she thinks that she's ready for him now, but then he pulls a move that she's never seen her Tim do before, and that's even more interesting. She wants this Tim to train her before she leaves. Lian doesn't know if that's because she wants to be ready for anything or because it's easier for her to spend time with this Tim than this Roy, but she doesn't really care either, because that move caught her completely off guard and that can't happen, even if it is a different Tim and a different earth where they have fewer cases and more people and…and she refuses to cry right now, so she ends the spar.

Tim walks away, and Lian reminds herself that stretching may not make her feel better, but it helps keep the tears at bay just as well as anything else that she's learned over the years. By the time Roy comes over to talk to her, she's managed to calm herself enough that, when he asks what kind of state her Bruce is in, she doesn't actually fall backwards--but that probably has more to do with the fact that she's in a sitting position than to her state of mind. It doesn't matter that Lian knows that her Uncle Tim, not to mention her Grandpa Bruce, would probably disapprove of what she tells him, because it feels almost right to tell this Roy about it.

After all, it isn't as though she's going to discuss Grandpa Bruce's state with her Grandpa Bruce, and her Uncle Tim doesn't like to think about that anymore than he likes to think about Uncle Dick, so it's just easier to talk to this Roy about everything that she can't actually say out loud at home, and maybe that's not a fair assessment. She knows that she could talk to her Uncle Tim about almost anything, and despite how difficult it is for him, he'd willingly discuss it with her, but she doesn't see any reason to hurt her Uncle Tim or force him to hurt himself, so she doesn't bring any of these things up at home. The fact that this Roy actually seems a little horrified at what she tells him isn't supposed to be gratifying in any way, shape, or form, but…well, it's not like she wasn't aware of how difficult her life can be. It's nice to have someone who can at least show emotions and not berate themselves for it afterwards. She misses that, too, even if seeing it makes her want to cry just as much as hugging him does.

When Lian convinces this Tim and Dick to allow her to patrol, it's one of the best things that's happened to her since she landed on that rooftop, and the truly happy feeling she gets from their simultaneous nod only last for about 3 nanoseconds before they suggest that she patrol with Roy; although, suggest isn't the right word, because it was unmistakably an order. It isn't as though Lian has anything against this Roy. She's sure he can probably work just as well with his robotic arm as he did before that happened, but she was really hoping to spend more time with this Tim, and see what she could learn from him. But, she knows that isn't all of the truth. The truth is, that what she really wants, in addition to spending more time with this Tim, is to get away from Roy for a while. The last thing that she needs is to compare his fighting style to what she remembers of her father's fighting techniques.

The only thing that keeps her from being a petulant child and whining to go with one of the other two is the fact that she can hear extremely soft footfalls coming down the steps. She really doesn't think she can handle seeing this Alfred just yet. So she decides to just bite the inside of her cheek and check her weapons, and her brain can just shut up about the fact that she's checking her weapons the same exact way that Roy does. They get on the very nice bike, which she just wants to spend a few minutes drooling over, just in time to miss Alfred, which is something else that she can be thankful for once she doesn't have to blink back tears, because she's dreamt of going on patrol with her dad, and all of those dreams started with the bike. Her dad always had a special love for motorcycles, and often said that he blamed Dick for that.

She can tell that this Roy has a love for bikes too just by the way that he's maneuvering, because--while the driving itself could be considered, at the least, reckless--it's also the most comfortable that she's felt since landing in this strange world with too many heroes, or maybe just enough heroes. They stop to deal with a purse snatcher on their way to the part of the city that Dick and Tim assigned them to patrol tonight. Roy lets her take the guy, and there's something deeply satisfying about kicking the guy's face in, because that's something that will never be awkward, off, or strange--no matter who's watching her do it. Roy doesn't comment until they're back on the bike, and when he does comment all he says is, "So, the boots are weighted."

Lian isn't sure why that observation makes her cringe inside, but she's pretty sure it has more to do with the tone. It's like he wanted to say good job, but couldn't bring himself to do so or something. "Yeah, they are. My Uncle Tim said that he always liked having more to work with when it came to the boots, and he figured the weight would be useful for me."

Roy doesn't say anything else before starting up the bike again. They get to their designated part of the city, and this is something that she can work with. This Gotham isn't too different from her own. Sure, some of the buildings are wrong or aren't crumbling nearly as much as they are in her world, but it's Gotham, all the same, and Gotham will never stop being home to her. They move well together. Her Uncle Tim taught her how to anticipate people's movements. Of course, that was more for her protection than working with someone who isn't him, but the training works the same in this instance, and it's nice to be out with someone besides her uncle who she isn't expecting a hit from.

It feels good to be working with him…better than good, and Lian wants to have this feeling all of the time. She wants what she's always wanted…to patrol with her dad, and she knows…just _knows_ that it would feel exactly like this. Right now, it doesn't matter that he's a different Roy. It doesn't matter that he has one robotic arm, because he does move exactly the way her dad did. It doesn't matter that they are quite literally from two different worlds. It doesn't matter that she absolutely just hit that gang runner a little too hard, because he's there and this is good…really good. Lian bends down to make sure that the idiot who used to have a knife is still breathing. Uncle Tim would look down upon that little slip, but Uncle Tim also wouldn't say much, if anything, because he knows that sometimes the guy with the knife needs a little more encouragement to stay the hell off the streets. Roy doesn't say anything either, and she's not really sure why, but she's grateful for it all the same.

They move on, and he seems to be purposefully distancing himself from her, which she thinks she understands. He's a little too far ahead, so Roy has to double back when Lian stops in an alley to take care of a would-be rapist. There's only one, and she knows that she's shown him enough of her skills not to warrant concern here. She can surely take down one asshole with a broken bottle and an impressive vocabulary for curses. Lian has always been tougher on rapists, just like she's tougher on people with explosives…especially the explosives. She didn't appreciate not being able to have an open casket funeral for her father. She's got the guy down on the ground bleeding and begging for his mommy, and a part of her thinks that maybe she shouldn't be enjoying this so much, and another part of her knows that if she was with her Uncle Tim right now, she definitely would have stopped at the begging. He doesn't like seeing her more violent fits of rage, after all, but none of that warrants the robotic arm wrapped around her waist. Lian's about to use one of her less Uncle Tim-approved moves when she feels her feet leave the ground.

The wind gets knocked out of her by the sheer force of Roy dumping her on the rooftop. Lian recovers quickly and scrambles to her feet. "Hey, I wasn't done with him."

She can't tell what expression he's giving her from behind that mask, but it makes her think of her father all the same, and she has to force herself not to recoil. "Yes, you definitely were. He was begging you to stop. I don't know what type of things your Tim taught you…okay, well I do now…but that type of violence isn't allowed in this Gotham. You were going to kill him."

Lian wants to laugh at that, but settles for rolling her eyes. "Oh please…maim him at best."

He stares at her with that horrified expression that she saw back at the cave after she told him about Grandpa Bruce, and it makes her want to vomit, because she's never wanted to see that look on her father's face. It doesn't matter that he isn't her father, because…because no Roy Harper should ever look at a Lian Harper that way. "Are you honestly telling me that your Bruce and Tim are okay with that type of behavior?"

She adjusts her posture to something very similar to her Uncle Tim's when he wants to drop a subject. "I don't usually respond in such a way around my Uncle Tim, and well…what Grandpa Bruce doesn't know won't…upset him."

Roy clenches his fists, and she's pretty sure that she's just imagining the sounds of strain from the robotic one. "I know that tone on a Bat, just like I know that you were about to use the word disappoint instead of upset. You know what you did is wrong."

Lian shrugs. She's made a habit of not getting caught in her world just so she wouldn't be forced into having this conversation. She'd laugh if she didn't want to cry so much. It just fit with everything else that she ended up having this conversation with Roy. "I don't think wrong is the right word here. I know that my Grandpa Bruce wouldn't approve, and Uncle Tim probably wouldn't be comfortable with my approach sometimes, but sometimes just knocking them out isn't good enough."

She can tell that he wants to throw his hands in the air by the way that his body shifts, and she's a little impressed that Roy just unclenches his fists and clenches them again without even so much as a shake. "You sound just like Jason, which let me tell you, the other two will not be at all pleased about."

Lian shrugs again, because the last thing that she can even think to care about is disappointing a different Tim and Dick, because it already hurts too much that she's clearly disappointed Roy. She isn't sure if that's because this is certainly going to make her plan to make him see that she needs him harder or if it's due to something else entirely. "I don't know any Jason, but if he's lost his father, most of his family, and a good portion of his friends, too, then I'm going to say that maybe it's okay for him to take a less Bruce-approved approach to this life."

Roy's jaw tenses, and she's fairly certain that whatever he's about to say is either going to make her cry or want to put an arrow through him. "And what about your father? Do you think he'd be pleased with your approach? Because I don't think I could ever be okay if my baby girl became a killer."

The tears are welling in her eyes before he even finishes his sentence, because it's not as though she hasn't thought about it. Sure, she does a lot of things to keep from thinking about it, but it's not like the thought hasn't weaseled its way through all of her mental blocks. "I don't kill." It's all she can do to keep her voice flat.

"Maiming isn't much better."

It doesn't matter that Lian had expected as much from him. It still feels like a blow to the chest all the same, and she can't keep the tears from falling now…no matter how hard she bites the inside of her cheek. "I can't afford to lose anyone else. I don't have many more people to lose."

Roy steps closer to her, and she steps away automatically. "I know, but this isn't the way."

That strikes something in her, because…because this isn't her world. "You don't know that. You have more people here. You have fewer chances to lose here. You…you don't know my world. You don't know what needs to be done there."

Roy shakes his head at her. "You're right, I don't know your world, but I do know that your Grandpa Bruce and Uncle Tim don't deserve to see you turn into something that you'll regret."

That makes her sneer. "You don't know me or what I'll regret."

He steps closer to her again, but this time she stands her ground. "Maybe not, but can you really stand to have them disappointed in you? I'll give you a hint if you aren't ready to fess up just yet. You wouldn't hide your approach, as you call it, if you actually thought you could stand the thought of not matching up…not deserving that suit in their eyes."

She doesn't tell him that she can't stand the thought of disappointing him either. He moves to wrap his arms around her again, and that's something else that she can't take right now. Lian is still berating herself for the first time that she allowed him to hug her…the first time that she truly failed since coming here. She backs away from him, and doesn't apologize even though she really wants to. He's looking at her like maybe he did something wrong, which is just ridiculous, because it's pretty obvious to her that she's the only one who screwed up tonight. Lian knows now that she should have just stayed at the cave…should have stayed somewhere where she wasn't going to end up…end up hurting in a way that she doesn't know how to deal with. Roy is still staring at her with a hurt expression as well, and he looks like he wants to hug her and make it better, and she wants that…wants to let him at least try, which is how she knows that it's time to leave. She doesn't say anything before she jumps off the roof.

She needs to get away. She needs to find a way home. She needs…a hug from her dad.

The end (for now)


	5. Chapter 5

Roy knows that he's not in the right headspace to be out here tonight. The fact that she isn't actually his daughter is apparently irrelevant to his brain. He's driving as fast as he is simply so that he'll be forced to actually focus on the road. The fact that Roy actually sees the purse snatcher in enough time to stop is more luck than anything else, which he knows is a problem. Roy motions for Lian to go deal with the guy, in the hopes that it'll give him some time to get his head on straight, but the moment that she kicks the guy in the face that thought goes out the window.

Roy stands at the mouth of the alley watching her. There's no reason that he can't give her pointers if she needs them, although he's not surprised that she doesn't need them. It is, however, messing with his head how good she is at taking the perp out, because knowing that she fights like an Arrow/Bat hybrid means nothing when he sees her take the guy down with a smile on her face that reminds him of his Lian's fifth birthday party, and yet so efficiently that he's reminded of the first time that Tim disarmed him.

It was Tim's way of a greeting after Roy had insulted his height, and Roy is pretty sure that it's just impossible to get used to seeing Lian move like Tim. When they get back on the bike, Roy isn't really sure what he's supposed to say. He doesn't think that he has the right to tell her good job, because it was just a purse snatcher. It's not like taking the guy out was a taxing experience, but he still feels like he should say something. The comment about her boots is just proof that Roy should have stayed in tonight, talked to Alfred, and had some cookies; but he isn't actually surprised that that plan fell through.

Roy moves on before their conversation can get even more awkward--not that he thinks that that's actually possible. When the two of them make it to their designated part of the city, Roy couldn't be happier to get off the bike and just move. When they come across a minor gang fight, Roy is ecstatic that he finally gets a chance to release some of his frustration on the idiots. They split the group right in half, and they move like two people who have been fighting together all of their lives. It's a little surreal, and Roy is finding it hard to focus on the fight…especially when she ducks in enough time for him to spin around and hit a guy in the jugular. They both watch the guy crumble to the ground with the same self-satisfied smirk on their faces.

It makes Roy think that his head is about to burst. He can't stop wanting this to last for more than just tonight. He wants to always be able to fight along side this girl…his girl. Roy doesn't get enough time to reprimand himself for that one, because there's a guy with a chain coming towards him. It's a nuisance, but nothing he can't handle. The chain hits his robotic arm, wraps around it, and now the guy is pulling Roy towards him; which just angers Roy more because now he has to…dodge the purple arrow flying past his head. The guy drops the chain, and before he can even get out another curse, Roy knocks his head off the alley wall. It doesn't take long before everyone's down with the exception of one guy. Roy sees Lian hit the guy a little too hard, but he doesn't say anything. Roy doesn't think that there's anything to say. She isn't his daughter, he didn't train her, and certainly she knows what she's doing. He watches Lian check the guy over before binding him.

Roy doesn't know if she's normally that rough with people in her Gotham, and he's fairly certain that it doesn't really matter if she is. Clearly, her Uncle Tim knows how she works and hasn't seen a problem with it, and it's not like she suddenly went Jason on anyone's ass tonight, so it's not like he has any right to be unnerved by it. The problem is, he _is_ unnerved by it. Roy is reasonably sure that anyone who was trained by any Tim should have more control than that. He's also pretty certain that it was a slipup due to the way that she looked up at him. It was almost as though she was expecting a reprimand, which just makes Roy even more uncomfortable with the situation.

When the two of them take to the rooftops, Roy makes sure to put some distance between them. He needs to get far enough away that he can clear his head a little. He knows that he shouldn't be having another breakdown over this. After all, it isn't like Roy wasn't hoping for a good fight tonight in order to work through a few things, and it wasn't even like she really hit that guy that hard. He knows, however, the real problem that he's having with the situation is the fact that she didn't seem very sorry for that slipup in general, and she seemed really damn grateful that he didn't say anything. It's making him question if he should have said something, and it's making him wish that she had gone out with Tim tonight.

Roy knows that it's a little childish and it's definitely cowardice that he's wishing for that simply because that would mean Roy wasn't dealing with this…dealing with her. He knows that he can barely keep his own life from tipping over the edge and going to the really dark depressing places on regular basis. He doesn't want to responsible for keeping someone else from that edge. There was once a time when that dark place was kept at bay by the light of a little girl with pigtails pulling on his hand and forcing him to play dolls with her, but that was years ago. Now, he's left with his own devices to keep from slipping, and he's pretty sure that he's failing miserably…especially now.

Roy catches Lian stopping in an alley out the corner of his eye, and he's actually really grateful for the distraction. He doubles back to meet up with her, and finds her pummeling a would-be rapist. He stands by and watches her for a few moments. There's only one guy, she is trained, and it's not like they didn't just take down a small gang, so it's not as though she needs any help with this. So, there's no really reason for him to jump in with an assist here. At least that's what he thinks, but after she's got him down on the ground bleeding, she's still not stopping. Suddenly the distraction that he was so grateful for is causing a knot to form in his stomach. No Lian Harper should be that cruel with anyone, especially not when the guy is crying out…no, begging for her to stop. Roy isn't sure if it's a need to stop the guy's blubbering, a need to stop Lian from becoming something that he can't deal with, or a need to just get away that causes him to wrap his robotic arm around her waist, but he's thankful that it happens all the same.

The conversation that takes place on the rooftop leaves him feeling sick afterwards. He understands what it's like to be pushed to do stupid things…to be pushed to hurt the scum that they deal with nightly more than is strictly necessary. He knows what it's like to take all of the pain, anger, and grief out on the criminals, but he never wanted that for his little girl. He knows that this Lian isn't his little girl, but that doesn't mean that he feels any better about what happened…what she was about to do. Roy didn't expect it to hurt so much to watch someone who merely looked like his daughter in pain, but it does, and it doesn't get any better now that she's jumped off the roof and is running away. He could follow her…hell, he probably should follow her, but Roy just can't make his feet move right now.

He needs a moment, or ten, but he's not getting either, because before he can even sink down to his knees, wallow in the pain, and just drown in it for awhile his comm crackles to life. "Why have you separated from Purple Arrow?"

It's Tim and that's not helping the situation at all. "How did you even know that we separated?"

Roy is pretty sure that he can hear the smirk in Tim's voice. "I placed a tracer on her while we were sparring earlier."

"Of course you did." Roy isn't sure what to say after that. He doesn't want to relive what just happened… at least not right now…not so soon. "I…I'm heading back to the cave."

"Are you hurt?" It's Dick's voice that he's hearing over the comm now, which is better than hearing Tim's right now.

"Not physically, no." They're Bats, so Roy is sure that they both picked up on the implications of that.

There's a moment of silence over the comm for a second, which Roy is reasonably sure means that they're deciding on what to do. "Go ahead and head back. Nightwing will meet you there. I'll go after Purple Arrow." The 'we'll discuss what happened when I get back' isn't spoken, but Roy hears it all the same.

The moment that the comm. goes dead Roy wants to crumble to his knees and just fall apart, but he knows that now just isn't the time. He needs to get back to the cave, and preferably before Dick. It'll just be easier to deal if he's already falling apart at the cave before Dick gets even more worried than he probably already is. Roy is off the roof before he can do something truly stupid, like convince himself to go after her.

When he makes it back to the cave Roy silently congratulates himself on making it in one piece. He doesn't even make it past the entrance before he feels a hand on his shoulder. Roy is too emotionally exhausted to be startled, so he just hangs his head, and sighs. "Hey, Dick."

Dick leads him further into the cave and practically pushes him into Bruce's chair. "So, what happened?"

Roy holds up a hand. "Nah uh, Alfred cookies before my pathetic sob story. I know that's how this works." Dick smiles a little and gestures to something behind Roy. Roy turns to see a plate of chocolate chip cookies sitting near the furthest corner of the desk. "I think I love that man."

Dick laughs lightly. "We all do. Now, are you going to tell me what happened?"

Roy takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Before he can stop himself his mouth opens, and he's not even sure what he's saying, but it feels good, and right, and…there's nothing but relief. "It's my fault. I should have stayed in tonight. She should have been out with Tim, and I should have had a chat with Alfred the moment that I got here…probably while she was in the middle of sparring Tim. I also should have said something the moment that she hit that one guy a little too hard, but really it's not like there's a single one of us who hasn't made that mistake once or a thousand times."

Dick just stares at him for a moment. "Okay, that didn't actually clear up anything."

Roy sighs and tries again. "Okay, so I'm pretty sure that I'm still fucked up in the head from…well, everything. I don't think I even realized how fucked up in the head I was/am until she dropped out of that portal, but I'm pretty sure that no man should have to see a girl who looks a hell of a lot like his dead daughter almost maim a guy."

Dick's eyes widen as his brain registers what Roy just said. "She did WHAT?"

Roy slumps further into the chair as he grabs a cookie off the plate in front of him. "Yeah, I'm not really sure how far she would have gone if I hadn't pulled her off the guy."

Dick grabs a cookie as well before he sinks down to the floor and sits in front Roy. "She was trained by a Tim, so I'm sure that she would have stopped before it got serious, right?"

Roy shakes his head. He'd say that he hopes so, but Roy knows better than to hope…has for quite some time…probably since the day that Lian died. "I don't know, Dick. The guy was down, bleeding, and begging. Not to mention that this Tim scares me a little. I don't even want to think about a Tim who's basically lost everything, from what she's said."

Dick raises an eyebrow at him. "You think that her Tim taught her that it's okay to maim because he's… What? …out of his fucking mind due to grief?"

Roy shrugs. "I don't know. I mean she said that she doesn't usually let him see that type of behavior, but it was…scary really doesn't cover it, and I really didn't like seeing a Lian Harper that way, Dick. And it really doesn't matter that she's not my Lian. We can't let her go back thinking that that's okay."

Dick looks really conflicted at that, and Roy wants to tell him that he doesn't care if Dick has objections--he's not letting her go back if she's going to fight like that. There are too many parts of his brain that want to say something right now about not letting her go back at all, but Roy knows that that's not an option. He doesn't precisely remember all of his well thought-out reasons for that, but he thinks that he should probably hold off on any more mental breakdowns…at least for a little while. Dick chews on another cookie for a moment before swallowing and replying to Roy's previous statement. "Roy, we can't just keep her here until she's thinking in a way that we deem appropriate. Hell, for all we know it's completely acceptable and necessary in her Gotham to…"

Roy can't believe what he's hearing. He especially can't believe that he's hearing this from Dick. This is the type of argument that Roy would have expected from Tim, or someone who is equally as emotionally inept. "To what, Dick? Maim a guy? I don't think that's acceptable in any Gotham."

Dick sighs. "Look, the point is, Roy, she isn't from our world, and it's not our place. If her Tim has a problem with it, then it's up to him to have that talk with her. Besides, if her Tim is anything like this Tim, then he taught her the less savory stuff, and left it up to her to decide when and how to use it, if at all."

Roy rolls his eyes as he viciously takes another bite out of his cookie. "Yeah, well clearly she's using it."

Dick stands up and places a hand on Roy's shoulder. "Yeah, but we don't know the whole story, Roy, and I feel almost certain that if you were having this conversation with Tim or Bruce they'd say something here about how our only responsibility to this girl is to make sure that she doesn't hurt anyone in this Gotham that badly, and get her home and out of our hair."

Roy sighs again. "Yeah, I guess you're right, but it all still seems so very wrong."

Roy launches into an abridged version of the conversation that he had with Lian on the roof, and waits for Dick to say something in response. The two of them are quiet for a time before Dick turns back to him. "I don't know what to say to any of that, but I do hope that our world never turns into the hell pit that her world so obviously is."

Roy nods, because that's exactly what he's been thinking ever since the moment that she started talking about her world. "Yeah, me too." It doesn't matter that Roy used to hate this world, and once upon a time thought that it was the cruelest of them all for how it treated children. He knows now that, while this world has its own problems, it could be far worse and far lonelier. That doesn't change the fact that he still misses his daughter, he still thinks that it's unfair that she was taken from him, and he still wishes that it had been him who died that day.

Dick grips Roy's shoulder tighter for a moment. "So, do you still want to have a chat with Alfred? Because, I'm pretty sure that'll have to wait until tomorrow, but we could spar until Tim drags Purple Arrow back here by her hair."

Roy laughs, because the mental image of that is just too damn funny, and he knows that Dick chose to use the name Purple Arrow as opposed to Lian to make it easier on him. Roy wants Dick to know that he's extremely grateful for that. "Yeah, and thanks for not using her other name."

Dick waves a hand at him. "Not a problem. Besides, you're not the only one having a problem saying that name. It's been a long time, but damn if it doesn't still hurt."

Roy nods as he starts to walk over toward the mats. He loses his weapons and gestures for Dick to do the same. The last thing that Roy needs is for this spar to turn into an ugly struggle for a knife, and he's really not in the mood to deal with the bruises that Dick's escrima sticks usually leave. The two of them stretch out before moving into ready positions. Dick is being nice enough to allow Roy to drive this spar. He's letting Roy set the boundaries…at least at first, and Roy knows that the moment that he even so much as looks like he's ready for more than just feints, this spar is going to turn into the type of fight that all of their spars eventually do.

Roy kicks out halfheartedly at Dick's ribs. Dick flips over him, and goes for a sweep. Roy jumps away and smiles. This feels good. He'd prefer to be hitting a bag with his face right now, but this works, too, and almost certainly won't lead to missing teeth…probably, anyway. Dick's flexibility always makes hand-to-hand combat interesting, and almost all spars with him push Roy to his limits, which right now is something that Roy needs. There's a certain kind of vertigo one gets when he's far more emotionally exhausted than physically exhausted, and sparring with Dick is always physically exhausting. It makes for a certain type of equilibrium that Roy hasn't had in what feels like forever.

Dick is spending the majority of this spar dodging, flipping, spinning, and blocking. Roy is reasonably sure that Dick's not going to actually attack until Roy makes it abundantly clear that he's actually able to do more than just take the hits. No one knows Roy's destructive tendencies better than Dick. Roy thinks that he deserves the pain, deserves to have a few bruises to make up for his stunning lack of focus tonight…for all of the mistakes that he made tonight, and there's no doubt in Roy's mind that he made a lot of them. The expression that Lian had when she jumped off that roof was enough to confirm that for him. She looked like…well, the same way he looked when he first failed everyone in his life. She looked like she was dying on the inside, and Roy is almost certain that no one knows that expression, that pain, that self-loathing more than he does.

He's brought out of his thoughts when he hears Dick's voice. "I know what you're doing, so stop it."

Roy raises an eyebrow as he ducks a kick from Dick. "What are you talking about?"

Dick spins around, and goes for a punch to the kidneys, which Roy barely manages to move away from. "You think you screwed up tonight. You didn't. Admittedly we probably should have found out more about her before we let her out tonight, and we definitely should have interrogated her more, but that was more Tim's and my own screw-up."

Roy rolls his eyes as he fakes a kick to Dick's knee, and throws a punch that would have broken Dick's jaw had it connected. "There's something wrong with every single one of you Bats. The girl goes crazy on some guy, and you blame yourself and Tim for not interrogating her more. If anything, I should have kept closer to her, and I should have been ready to rein her in at any time, but I was too busy focusing on my cracked psyche."

Dick hums, as he volts over Roy, and lands a kick to Roy's back that would have stung like hell if Dick wasn't pulling it. "Okay, so Tim and I broke protocol, but you don't think we should blame ourselves. Meanwhile, you were thrown into a situation that no one should have to deal with, but you think that you have more reason to brood than us? I think a certain Arrow is forgetting which one of us is the Bat here."

Roy grunts as Dick lands another hit, this one to his shoulder, but before Dick can flip away Roy knocks his feet out from under him, and pounces on top of him. "Okay, so maybe I'm being a little hard on myself, but you weren't there, Dick. You didn't see the expression she had on her face after that talk. I know I hit a sore spot with her, and I didn't want to, but she needed to see that the way that she was fighting just wasn't going to lead anywhere good."

Dick throws him off, gets back to his feet, and leaps toward Roy before Roy can even brace himself for the impact of Dick's body. They're on the ground grappling with each other, but before Dick can pin Roy, Roy manages to slip away from him. Dick gets to his feet again, but doesn't attack. "Alright, I'll give you that. I wasn't there; but don't you think that maybe part of her problem might have been the fact that she clearly angered and disappointed you."

Roy doesn't know what to say to that. He hadn't actually considered that, and he doesn't even know why his opinion would matter in the slightest to her. "I'm not her father. I'm not even from her world. I don't know her, and she doesn't know me. Why the hell would disappointing me matter to her?"

Dick rolls his eyes and looks like he really wants to punch Roy in the face. "Maybe because you made her realize that she probably would be disappointing her own father."

Roy stops mid kick for that one, because, while he had thought of that, it hadn't really sunk in. "Okay, now I really want to punch myself in the face. Mind doing the honors?"

Dick laughs and moves to clasp a hand on Roy's shoulder. "No, but I will race you upstairs. I told Alfred that hot chocolate would probably be in order while I was on my way here."

Roy can't help it. He has to smile at that, because it's just so Dick, and hot chocolate does sound far better than a punch to the face, even if he still thinks that the latter would make him feel less like an ass. "Yeah, let's do that." The two of them change as quickly as possible before dashing up the stairs.

Roy doesn't think that hot chocolate and cookies are going to fix anything. He still feels like he should bash his head against the cave wall until Tim and Lian get back, but he can't deny that hot chocolate and cookies sounds a hell of a lot more appealing. He takes the stairs two at a time, while Dick does his own crazy flips and such. Roy thinks that maybe he should consider a nap, or a tranquilizer, or an electric shock, or…something that will let him just deal with all of this.

Dick's right, after all; they don't have any real responsibility to this girl, which means that he shouldn't actually care about what happens next--but he does, because not caring feels like too much of a cop out. Simply saying that she's not his daughter so it doesn't matter, feels like letting down his own daughter in some way, which he knows is just ridiculous…or maybe just completely accurate. Roy isn't sure about anything…not anymore, and he thinks that maybe that's just one more piece of evidence that this entire situation is going to drive him crazy. Of course, that's assuming that he isn't crazy already. All he knows is that there's too much pain for him to deal with right now, and he knows that the next time that he sees her, their interaction is going to be twice as hard to deal with than it already is. And for some reason, a part of him feels like he's losing his daughter all over again, which makes no sense…except for all of the ways that it does.

The End (for now)


	6. Chapter 6

Lian doesn't know where she's going. It's not like she had a plan beyond getting away...getting far away. All she knows is that she's in some other Gotham letting people down-people she didn't even know existed 16 hours ago. She's in an alley curled in on herself trying to find some way to deal with the mess that she's made, when she hears the sound of a cape behind her. She doesn't respond to it, though. This isn't her world. That isn't her Tim standing at the mouth of alley, and it doesn't matter if she knows that he's concerned or not, because she just wants to go home.

He steps closer to her, but she doesn't uncurl herself any. "Purple Arrow, are you hurt?"

She wants to scream at how much he sounds like her Tim, but all she does is shake her head. "No, I'm fine."

He laughs, but there's no humor in it. "I really don't think that you're fine, and I've got a funny feeling that that trick doesn't work back home anymore than it does here."

Lian sighs as she gets to her feet. "I just...I miss my Gotham."

Tim stares at her, but she can't tell what expression he's wearing underneath his cowl. "Somehow, I don't actually believe that that's the reason that you look so miserable, nor do I believe it's the reason you're in this alley."

She lets her shoulders slump. She's pretty sure Roy told him everything anyway, so she might as well just get it over with. "So, what do you intend to do with me?"

"What do you mean?" Tim definitely sounds confused, and Lian's got a feeling that he's raising an eyebrow at her from underneath his cowl...even if it's only because that's what her Tim would be doing right now.

She sighs again, and she really wants to hug herself, but she won't. Lian was well trained, and she doesn't have to act like a child just because this Tim acts so much like her own. "I'm sure he told you everything, so..." She trails off. Lian doesn't really want to find out what he has in store for her, but she knows that prolonging the inevitable doesn't really solve anything.

Tim shakes his head at her-and that irks her, because Lian knows that he's seeing a child right now. She wants to scream at him that she's not a child, which Lian knows wouldn't actually help in any case. "He didn't tell me anything. All Red Arrow said was that he needed to head back to the cave; so why don't you tell me what happened?"

Lian bites her lip for a moment. She's surprised that he didn't say anything, but she figures it makes sense. After all, he looked just as upset as she still feels. Lian doesn't understand why he looked that way. She thinks it's rather clear that she's the only one who keeps screwing up. She lost control, and she knows exactly how her Uncle Tim would respond to that. The thought alone makes her stomach drop, and she really doesn't want to answer this Tim's question. She doesn't want to see his reaction; and if he's anything like her Tim...well, she's not exactly sure how her Tim would respond to the rest of what happened tonight, but that seems to be even more of a reason to weasel her way out of this conversation. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He folds his arms over his chest. Eventually she'll get over how similar he is to her Tim...or so she hopes. "I've got a feeling that you learned that trick from your Tim. I also have news for you-the only time you should use someone else's trick against them is if you think that you can get them to show you a way to defend against it, and I can guarantee you that isn't going to happen here."

She bites the inside of her cheek and tries to remember to breathe. She knows from experience with her own Tim that once a Tim is onto something he isn't going to let it go unless he gets the truth, or at least something that he can reasonably tell himself is the truth. Lian doesn't want to see the look of disappoint...the look of...hate. She doesn't know if there's anything she could ever do to make her Tim hate her, but this isn't her Tim, and if what Roy says is true...well, she can't bank on the fact that some Lian was close to this Tim, because there wasn't.

She lets her thoughts stop there, because she doesn't want to imagine a world where she isn't close to her Tim. Some days it feels like he's all she has left, and she really needs to focus-because she's visibly shaking, and she needs to get that under control exactly 2.7 seconds ago. He moves lightning fast, and he's got his hands on her shoulders, looking Lian over like she's a victim in shock or something. She knows that she needs to pull herself together, but she's just not sure if she can handle that right now.

Lian opens her mouth to tell him that she's fine, but instead what comes out is a string of words that sound a lot like what she did on patrol tonight. She can't shut herself up, and Lian isn't sure if she wants to. Certainly, she doesn't want to deal with the fallout once this Tim realizes exactly how much she's failed, but Lian can't help but think that maybe it would be a relief. On one hand, it would mean that someone finally saw her for who she is instead of the girl that she tries to be for her Grandpa Bruce and her Uncle Tim. On the other hand, it could very well mean being locked up for the duration of her stay in this world. She shudders again at that thought, because there's nothing worse than being held captive in a place that you can't get out of. Except this time would be worse, because this time her Uncle Tim won't be coming to rescue her. Mainly because her Uncle Tim would be the reason that she's a captive to begin with, and no, that's not accurate because he isn't actually her uncle...even if he does smell just like him.

Tim tightens his hold on her shoulders, and tries to calm her down. "It's okay. Really, it's okay. We all slip up. We all make mistakes. It's fine."

She can't believe what he's saying, especially since it's not even true. Lian pushes him away from her. "How the hell can you call this okay? How the hell is this fine? You weren't there. You didn't...you didn't see his face. My dad...I mean, Roy was so disappointed in me. I don't think I can ever look him in the eye again."

Tim nods at her, and she really wants to punch him in the face, because that's the 'you're about to figure it out and when you do I may just snicker at you for awhile' nod that she's used to getting from her Uncle Tim all the time. "See, and this is why it's okay. If you weren't screwed up in the head over this...if you didn't feel bad about it...if disappointing the people around you didn't matter to you, then I would worry; but you know what you did was wrong. You know that you lost control, and you know that that isn't okay...not here and certainly not back in your own Gotham. As for everything else that's upsetting you right now...well, Roy's not your father, but I can tell you that he probably does want what's best for you. I'm not your uncle, but I will train you as much as possible before you go back. And Dick? Well, he will shower you with affection. No matter how you feel about it, so I suggest you deal with that now."

Lian smiles at him awkwardly. He's right, of course, on all counts. It's just that she wasn't actually expecting him to just lay it all out like that. In fact, the impression that she got from the other two was that he didn't do stuff like this all that often. She knows from experience, and from everything that her Aunt Barbara and Grandpa Bruce have said, that her Uncle Tim never really acts like this either, so it's a little weird to see this Tim act so...open. She can tell just from the way that he's standing that it's not something that he's used to, and, for some reason, she feels as though it's up to her to lighten the conversation slightly. "So, is this your speech to get me to go back to the cave?"

Tim smirks at her. "Well, where else are you going to go?"

Lian folds her arms over her chest. "You may have a point, but I still don't know if I can handle seeing your Alfred yet."

Tim inclines his head slightly, and she knows that he's about to say something that she's going to want to laugh at. "I'm sure Nightwing would say something about how his cooking should make it worth it, but I'm simply going to say that Alfred and chocolate are two words that make even Bruce stop brooding...sometimes."

Lian does laugh, because how could she possibly forget something so simply universal. An Alfred who can't cook is like a Harper who can't shoot. It just isn't feasible. She takes a moment to calm herself before she turns back to Tim. "So, you really aren't mad at me?"

Tim shakes his head at her. "I doubt it would surprise you to know that I, myself, have slipped a time or two, and I don't think there's anyone in this life who hasn't. I can't speak for the others, of course, but I'm sure that if all of us think calmly and rationally we can get over this incident and focus on the more important issue at hand, such as getting you home."

She smiles at him shyly. Lian had never expected this conversation to go so easily, and part of her is still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but she thinks that she can manage to focus on her relief for, at least, a little while longer. "I know that after everything that I just told you, you probably want to get me back to the cave as quickly as possible, but..."

Tim holds up a hand to stop her. "But you really want to finish your patrol."

She gives him a very small, very curt nod. "I promise to stick with you, and to follow every order you give me, and because I was trained by a Tim, you know that I mean even the unspoken orders. It's just that...I don't think I can go back there still feeling like this. I don't think I can be okay with that moment being the last thing I did out here tonight. I...I need this." She doesn't think that he's going to go for it...not even a little bit. Especially since, if the roles were reversed, she sure as hell wouldn't let someone who had done what she did out on the street again, and certainly not on the same night.

She can tell that he's looking her over, and probably giving her a hard glare under that cowl. Lian doesn't know what he's looking for, nor is she sure what he's actually seeing, but after a moment or two, he takes a step closer, looming over her. "Every order?" She nods once, and holds her breath. He inclines his head slightly. "Then let's go."

The two of them jump off the roof together, and she allows him to take the lead. This feels just as good as swinging with Roy had at first, and it feels just as right as patrolling with her own Tim does. She isn't sure what she said that had convinced Tim to allow her to continue to patrol, but Lian is grateful for it all the same. She follows behind him as close as possible, and when he shifts his route to stop in an alley she stays on the roof and allows him to handle it. Lian doesn't want to make one wrong move, so she's not going to make any until he signals her to. She's never liked just standing by and taking orders, but she's well aware of how necessary it can be, and she's certainly use to it.

Tim zip strips the guy, and motions for her to meet him on the ground. She leaps from the roof, and lands behind him and to his left. Lian waits for Tim to move or speak, but he doesn't do anything for a long moment. She's itching to move, but she knows this part. This is to test if she can actually just stand quietly beside him without questioning what happens next. Her Tim did this with her a lot when she was younger. Her Tim also spent a lot of time comparing her to her Uncle Dick back then. She spent a lot of time with her Dick when she was younger, and her father more than once complained about her picking up his bad habits...like not being able to sit still for very long. She often still sees the pain in her Uncle Tim's eyes every time that she does something that reminds him of Dick, which is actually a great motivator for her to remain still, but sometimes even that doesn't help her restlessness.

After what feels like forever Tim nods and they move back to the rooftops. He's following a different route than Red Arrow had, and she's not really sure why, but she doesn't question it. After all, Gotham isn't Red Arrow's home...no matter how comfortable he may have looked on these rooftops. They stop on a rooftop about a mile away from where they last stopped, and Tim (he still has yet to give her his code name, although she doesn't know why) crouches on the ledge, and watches the building across the street. He motions for her to crouch beside him. "I've been doing surveillance on this building for the past week."

She nods, and doesn't ask why this building in particular. This is another type of test. He's trying to see how long she can go without breaking the silence, or her promise to follow every order. She knows this just as well as everything else that goes along with this type of life. Lian wants to smile, because this feels just like the first time that she went out with her Tim. She was almost ten, and her costume, back then, was more gray than purple. Grandpa Bruce wanted to put a bat symbol on it, but her Uncle Tim wouldn't let him. Lian remembers the long and loud fight they had about that one, and she's not really sure how Tim managed to win, but she's always been silently grateful that he had. Lian will always love the Bat side of her family, but she knows that her father would never...hell, could never approve of a bat symbol on her chest.

Tim shifts beside her, and she's well aware that he just caught her not paying attention, still that doesn't mean that she has to admit to it. "I'm paying attention. I swear."

He gives her a look from under his cowl, but she can't tell if it's a wry expression, or if he's just glaring a little. The set of his mouth isn't very telling right now, and she knows that he's doing it on purpose, but it's still frustrating. "I'm sure that it's difficult for you to focus when you're still trying to deal with what happened tonight while comparing everything to your home."

His voice is blank, which isn't helping her decide if that was supposed to be a snide comment, just an observation, or a guess at what she's thinking that she's supposed to correct as need be. "It's...I'm dealing, really. It's just...well everything's so much alike, and yet so very different here."

He nods once, and she really wants to suggest that he switch to just an eye mask, because she didn't realize how much she needs to see what little emotion her Tim allows himself to show until she didn't have it anymore. It might cut down on confusion, and she's sure that there are probably plenty of misunderstandings due to the lack of being able to see his expressions. After all, the amount of tension in one's jaw can only tell an outside observer so much. Besides, they are Bats, which means that there are probably a lot of misunderstandings just from a lack of communication. Lian wonders how the hell they all manage to get along and work together. She has enough problems getting along with and working with Uncle Tim and Aunt Barbara when she isn't necessarily at her best at reading them. Certainly, it has to be harder with more people, less talking, and less obvious facial expressions. "You should all talk more." And she didn't actually mean to say that out loud, but well...it's not even on the list of top ten things that she shouldn't have said tonight.

He turns to her, and she knows when a Timmy is raising his eyebrow...mostly full face mask or not. "I thought you said you were focusing."

She smirks at him. Mainly because it's the only thing that she can think to do at this precise moment. "I am...I just didn't tell you what I was focusing on."

Tim lets out a breathy laugh, and she can't tell, but she's pretty sure it's a pained one. Her Tim sounds like that when she does something to remind him of Uncle Dick. "What did I...no, who did I just remind you of?"

He stares straight at her, not saying anything for a long moment. Just when Lian is about to turn her attention back to the building they're supposed to be doing surveillance on Tim whispers so quietly that she has to strain to hear him. "A little girl who never really got to reach her full potential."

Lian nods once, but doesn't respond. That should have been obvious. It's all she's been hearing since she stepped out of that portal. She sets her jaw, and wipes all emotion from her face. She thinks that she should probably work more on trying to keep her eyes blank too-if only because she knows that her Uncle Tim always sees right through her mask-but she just can't muster up the effort right now. Lian is about to call this a mistake and make some excuse to go back to the cave, but before she can even start her half-baked evasion tactic, Tim interrupts with what she thinks is his version of a nervous laugh. "You know, it's really weird to see one of my own expressions on your face."

Lian can't help it. She has to smile at that, because this isn't the first time that someone has commented on her picking up certain things beyond fighting techniques from her Uncle Tim. Her Aunt Barbara and Grandpa Bruce often 'suggest' she spend more time with kids her own age when she does something distinctly Tim-ish. "Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment, and smile with pride at every gray hair I'm personally responsible for causing Grandpa Bruce and Aunt Barbara."

The corner of Tim's mouth twitches. She doesn't know about this Tim, but for her's, that expression is the equivalent of laughing oneself to tears. The fact that she managed to induce such a thing while on patrol is really just an added bonus. Lian takes a small bow, and this time Tim's smile is actually big enough that a normal person might even actually see it. Lian grins in return. He stands up out of his crouch, and visibly tries to wipe the smile from his face. "You're a lot like Roy, too, you know?"

Lian raises an eyebrow at him out of skepticism. "Really? Because I would think that, after tonight, I've kind of proven that if I am anything like him it's clearly not enough to matter."

Tim folds his arms over his chest, and clearly glares down at her, and she has to bite her tongue to keep from giggling, because she knows...just knows that he uses that particular glare on the less threatening criminals, and kids who just need a little more reassurance to stay in doors at night, eat all of their vegetables, and do their homework. It really is kind of funny. "Did you ever think that his biggest problem was that he knows all too well how slippery the slope you were going down tonight can be?"

That catches Lian off-guard, because...well, she knows enough about her own father's 'slip-ups' to keep her from following certain paths-and she has both her Aunt Barbara and her Grandpa Bruce to thank for that one-but she never pegged this Roy as going through those same things. It's actually starting to really irk her how much she just doesn't know, and not just about this world and it's heroes, but about her own. Back home, Lian knows what she needs to know, or at least what her Uncle Tim, Aunt Barbara, and Grandpa Bruce _think _she needs to know, and the lack of information has never frustrated her quite the way it does now. She knows their reasons, or at least she thinks that she does, but that isn't making any of this any easier, and Tim did actually pose a question to her, and she is actually supposed to respond to it sometime this century. "So you're saying I'm too much like him?"

Tim shrugs. "Maybe it's something that you should discuss with him."

Lian throws back her head and laughs, which seems to startle Tim slightly, but she can't help it. She takes a moment to herself to just soak up the irony of that statement, and then lets it out in a loud whole-hearted laugh. After a few moments she manages to compose herself again. "Sorry, it's just...you've gotta think that's funny."

Tim is definitely raising his eyebrow again. "Oh, do I?"

Lian wants to giggle at his obvious confusion, but she pushes the laughter down this time. "Come on, you're a Bat...you don't communicate...you see a problem that can be solved with a discussion and you run in the other direction, and yet you're telling me that I should have a discussion with a guy whose past-whose obviously painful past-is none of my business. That's...that's just funny. Bats have no problem telling other people to talk out their issues, but have you ever seen a Bat try the same thing. I highly doubt it."

Tim's eyebrows clearly furrow under the cowl, which at least is a good sign that Lian hasn't completely lost her ability to read people in this life. "Okay, is this reaction due to something you've noticed between myself and the others, or did I just remind you of something back home?"

Lian shakes her head as if to clear it, and then blows the few strands of dark hair that have fallen out of her ponytail out of her face. "Aunt Barbara, Uncle Tim, and Grandpa Bruce...they never talk...not about anything that isn't mission related...if they can help it, and if, for some reason, they can't avoid a certain touchy subject anymore, they usually do their talking through me, and they sure as hell never talk about Uncle Dick without some type of horrible breakdown. It's the same way here, you know? I watched you and Dick in the cave. You're a hell of a lot more civil, but you still don't actually talk...not really, you know? I mean, there's clearly something wrong. Clearly, something happened between the two of you, and you just keep avoiding it. It was obvious when you two were talking in the cave. You're just dancing around each other, and whatever the subject is that's made you two...the way that you are."

Tim hums for a moment. "And this bothers you?"

Lian shrugs as she runs a hand through her hair...messing it up even further. "Only if you're going to tell me that I should be talking to a guy I don't even know...a guy that I'm fairly certain doesn't want to know me."

Tim sighs. "It might be good for you...that's all, and by the way...he might surprise you."

Lian raises an eyebrow at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Tim gives her a small smile. "Just that I think you both want to get to know each other more than either of you want to allow yourselves, and that's mainly for fear of...something."

Lian folds her arms over her chest. "Something? I know that tone on my Tim it means that he's pretty sure that he knows the answer already, but he wants me to figure it out on my own."

Tim's smile only grows more mischievous at that. "Then figure it out. Now come on, we've got a patrol to finish."

She knows that the conversation is over. It's time to work, and she has to follow him...and not just because she promised that she would. It still irks her, but she has to follow if she's going to figure it all out. Lian wants to know what he sees...what he thinks is going on with both of them, because she sure as hell doesn't know. She finds it hilarious that she needs Tim to tell her what Roy is thinking, because she can't figure it out for herself. Lian isn't sure if that makes her too Bat or not Bat enough, but she can't even care right now, because if what Tim alluded to is true, then she still has hope. There's still a chance for her to get what she wants...what she needs.

If Roy wants to get to know her...if he wants to teach her, then that can only work in her favor. If he already thinks that she needs to learn from him, then it can't be that hard for her to convince him that she doesn't just need to learn from him, but that she needs him...needs a father, because...well, she's fairly certain that it's all obvious and true anyway. She can certainly work with that, but...but she doesn't get to finish that thought because Tim is waiting for her on the next rooftop over, and she has to find out what he knows about the situation-because if he, even for one moment, thinks that she's going to try to convince Roy to come back with her, then he's most likely going to convince Roy that she's just a different type of evil, and that's not true at all. She's just a girl, who needs a dad...her dad's been dead for far too long. But that's okay, because the universe wouldn't be offering her such a stunning replacement if it didn't think that she didn't need it or deserve it, right?

The End (for now)


	7. Chapter 7

Roy and Dick settle in the cave after their hot chocolate and sequential long conversation over what to do next. Neither one of them have any idea what they intend to do, but Roy can tell that Dick really just wants to find a way to send Lian home before anything truly disastrous can happen. Normally Roy would agree with him, but for some reason, he just isn't feeling the same way this time. He wants to say something to Dick about how it really is their responsibility to make sure that Lian doesn't go down a path that they, or even more importantly, she can't handle; but before he gets the chance, there are footsteps behind him.

Roy and Dick turn at the same time to see Lian and Tim wandering in. They both look thoroughly exhausted after their long night, but Roy isn't exactly sure why. He turns to Dick's computer to see what time it is, and discovers it's 3:45 AM. Roy isn't sure what it means that Tim took so long to bring her back, but he can't imagine that it took him very long to find Lian. Especially with the tracer that he put on her, but he can't honestly believe that Tim actually let her finish patrol-unless she didn't tell him what happened and just claimed that Roy couldn't deal-which he thinks is a pretty believable story. He's about to ask what took them so long, but before he even gets a chance, Dick is pushing past him to loom over Tim. "And just where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for you for two hours."

Tim completely ignores Dick and turns to Lian instead. "You should go get changed. I'll expect you down in the cave early tomorrow. We're going to work on some of the katas that Bruce taught me early on. I want to figure out exactly how much your Tim taught you, starting there."

Roy watches Lian bite her bottom lip uncertainly as she nods in Tim's direction before staring at Dick, and quickly heading in the direction of the showers. Roy thinks that it's rather clear that she isn't used to seeing Dick and Tim squabble, and well, he hopes that she's used to long periods of the silent treatment. Unless this turns into a loud disagreement, in which case he might have to step in before someone ends up with a broken face. But he doesn't think that it'll come to that...or at least he hopes that it won't.

After Lian is clearly out of earshot, Tim turns back to Dick, who continues to give Tim one of his better bat glares. "What?"

Dick is clearly seething a little at Tim's nonchalant response to Dick's obvious anger. "Are you seriously going to train her?"

Tim shrugs casually. "Sure, why not?"

Dick looks like he really wants to hit something...or someone. "Maybe you aren't aware of this, little brother, but she almost maimed a guy tonight."

Tim nods, and when he speaks, he sounds like he's talking to a small child. "Yes, I'm well aware of it. She knows that it was wrong, and she spent the rest of patrol with me following every order."

Dick looks absolutely outraged at this new piece of information. "You did WHAT? How could you let her continue to patrol after what she did? Are you out of your frickin' mind?"

Tim barely even blinks at Dick's now raised voice. "She gave a compelling reason for why she had to continue with patrol, and I kept a close eye on her."

Dick balks at that. "Compelling? What the hell, Tim? What could she have possibly said that could have made you think that that was a good idea?"

Tim folds his arms over his chest, and Roy often wonders how the kid can be so damn emotionless all of the time. It's such a strange contrast to Dick, who wears his emotions on his sleeve. Even if Dick wasn't yelling, every single part of his body just oozes irritation, anger, and concern. It's a little surreal watching the two of them fight. "Look, Dick, it's not like there isn't a single one of us who hasn't slipped at one point or another, so she got a little rough with a criminal. I take that as just one more reason that we should work with her and help her train more before we send her back. Besides, who are you to bench someone for getting a little more vicious with the criminals. When you're the one who made Damian, of all people, Robin."

Roy's a little surprised that Tim mentions that at all. He can understand that it might still be a sore spot for Tim, but he's made Red Robin into his own, and has been working under that identity long enough that it seemed as though Tim was completely over being Robin. In fact, Tim's voice is absolutely no harsher than it would be discussing the weather or something, so if he is still having problems dealing with being replaced, Roy finds it impressive how level he keeps his tone. Roy turns his attention back to Dick, who looks as though he really wants to argue with Tim more, but before he can, Tim cuts in. "Let's face it. I let her continue with patrol, and you aren't happy with that, but there's nothing you can do about that now. Also, I'm going to work with her while she's here, so you might as well just accept that now, Dick."

Dick blinks a few times at Tim's finality over it. "What the hell has gotten into you? I thought that you'd be the one person on my side on this one. We don't even know this girl. We have no obligation to her, and we have enough problems on our hands while Bruce and Damian are off world. Hell, for all we know, she came here on purpose in search of a world where her dad isn't dead, so that way she could have a happy family again."

The moment the words leave Dick's mouth, Roy feels ill. He hadn't even thought of that, and really, leave it to the Bats to come up with all of the horrible possibilities that any situation could hold. Roy wants to say that it's probably not true...that she'd have to be a damn good actress to look so stunned and hurt when she popped out of that portal and saw him. He wants to jump to her defense, but it's not like he has any proof that Dick's wrong. Well, other than his interactions with the girl. Roy can't imagine traveling the multiverse just to find another Lian, because he knows it would just be too damn painful. Hell, just seeing this Lian makes him want to break down and cry on a regular basis. Visiting worlds where she never existed, never met him, only knew Cheshire, was a completely normal happy child, ended up being exactly who he always envisioned his daughter being, or any other crazy scenario would just drive him out of his mind. He certainly can't imagine a 15-year-old putting herself through all of that by choice.

Tim shrugs, but doesn't seem to be having the problem that Roy is with actually believing Dick's scenario to be true. "Maybe that's so. Maybe she is just manipulating all of us, but even if that's true, don't we have the right to try and show her a better way? Isn't it kind of our duty as Bats to give her other options? Wouldn't it be rather hypocritical of us, especially you, Dick, to just cast her aside when we've literally let former assassins into our little family?"

If Roy felt like dealing with an even more enraged Dick, he'd cheer Tim on right now, because the kid is making a rather good case here, and well...he's certainly doing a better job than Roy did of convincing Dick that the maiming needs to stop, even if that means training her themselves. He's not sure how the hell this former Robin got the back bone to go toe to toe with both of his former mentors, but Roy has to admit that he's always kind of admired the kid for it. Dick opens his mouth to respond, but stops abruptly. He's staring at something past Tim's shoulder. At the exact same time Tim and Roy turn to see Lian standing there looking like she wants to cry.

Roy's mouth goes dry at her expression; and his first immediate thought is to run to her, and make it better, but he knows that he can't. It doesn't matter that seeing a girl who looks so much like his daughter kicks all of his parental responses into overdrive, and he wants nothing more than to punch his best friend in the face for hurting a girl who isn't his daughter, but, in a way, is close enough. Roy can't move, no matter how much he may want to, because despite how much he wants to believe Dick is wrong, the possibility still remains that he isn't, and that makes comforting the girl, who could very well be a great actress and a horribly convincing liar a big no-no.

Luckily for Roy he doesn't have to do anything of the sort, because Tim decides to take matters into his own hands. Roy thinks it might be just to spite Dick, but the kid doesn't look like someone acting out of of resentment. No, Tim looks as though he's doing this for himself. "I really wouldn't listen to anything Dick has to say if I was you. He has a tendency to speak without thinking, and well, I've known him for years-have rarely given him a reason not to trust me-and yet, I still have to ask...hell, beg for his trust when I just want him to believe me on one simple matter."

Roy's not sure what the hell has gotten into Tim that he's suddenly so snippy, but Lian smiles shyly, and gives a curt nod, so he can't really feel all that bad that Tim just keeps taking shots at Dick with that blank tone of his. Dick, however, doesn't seem to be so enthusiastic about Tim's sudden harshness towards him, which is understandable. "It wasn't a simple matter, Tim."

Tim turns back to glare at Dick. "Maybe so, but you've gotta admit that you have a tendency to be an ass."

Dick glares right back, and even Roy is starting to feel uncomfortable. He isn't sure where this fight is going, but he kind of just wants to grab Lian and head the hell out of here. He thought that Tim was over most of his Damian issues-not that the two of them are by any means friendly, but they definitely aren't trying to kill each other every five seconds-but it seems that, as all Bats do, Tim was just repressing, and now that he's spent some time with this Lian, and can see the symmetry between the two of them, his little facade is cracking, and well...it isn't as though Roy can't relate.

Dick steps closer to Tim, and Roy isn't sure if he's going to be able to stop this fight from turning physical or not. "I thought that you dealt with all of this, Tim, but I guess I should have known that it was just more of your denial and repression."

Roy's actually kind of impressed that Tim doesn't throw a punch right there, because...really, it's not like Dick has a lot of room to talk here. Especially, if the entire reason that Dick has suddenly become so paranoid has more to do with his attempts to live up to Bruce's standards than anything else. Although, it's possible that taking care of Gotham while Batman and Robin are out of town is just taking it's toll on Dick. Tim, for his part, just turns away from him. "Lian, where did you leave your suit?"

She cocks an eyebrow at Tim; clearly confused on why he's asking, and obviously wondering how the hell this conversation is going to defuse the fight brewing between Dick and Tim. "Um, over there." She points to a crumpled pile of discarded body armor on the other side of the cave. "Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to check it over, and see if I could modify anything for you.."

Roy steps closer the moment Dick's hand lands on Tim's shoulder. When Dick spins Tim around, Roy's expecting a fist to come crashing into Tim's face, but Dick seems to be restraining himself. "What the hell? Are you going to outfit her with even more weapons, so that way we have a miniature Jason Todd on our hands?"

Tim forcefully pushes Dick's hand off of his shoulder. "No, I was going to make sure that she's well protected, so that she doesn't end up dead. If that's okay with you? I still don't get what the problem is here. She slipped up, a criminal got a little more damaged than we prefer, she's well aware that it was a mistake and can't happen again; so drop it." 

Dick's hands are both balled into tight fists, and Roy isn't sure how much longer this altercation can last before there's blood, but he doesn't actually have anything to say to diffuse this. After all, Roy's well aware that telling his best friend that he's rooting for his little brother on this one just because Roy, himself, honestly can't deal with Dick's suspicions being right isn't actually helpful. "I just don't get it. Why are you willing to get into it with me over someone you don't even know? Is it because she reminds you so much of our Lian? Because, I get that...I do, but you're the logical one, Tim. Tell me, where the hell is the logic in letting her run around this Gotham maiming people when she could be here for any number of horrible reasons?"

Tim folds his arms over his chest, and just stares at Dick blankly. "I don't know. Where's the logic in letting a kid who was raised by assassins be Robin just because he has Bruce's DNA and would probably kill people without someone there to stop him. I mean, it's kinda the same principle, isn't it, Dick? I'm willing to keep an eye on her, and make sure that she doesn't lose control again. So, really, what's your problem with this situation, Dick? Is it that you can't deal with watching a girl who's so much like our Lian fight, and you're really just projecting here?"

Dick doesn't respond verbally, instead he fakes a punch, and goes down to sweep Tim's legs out from underneath him. Tim back flips away, and looks like he really wants a weapon right now...knowing Tim he's probably searching for his Bo staff, and Roy is almost tempted to give it to him just because if any of that is true, Dick is probably going to receive a solid hit from Roy after all of this. They spent two hours sitting around drinking cocoa and talking, and not once did Dick mention how he was feeling about this whole situation. Not that Roy is all that surprised; after all, every Bat does this in some capacity.

Tim spins away from Dick's next barrage of hits, and tries to keep out of Dick's striking range, but once again the acrobat is far better at getting into Tim's space than Tim is at getting out of Dick's. Dick goes for a kick to the head, which Roy is pretty sure would have left Tim in a daze for a bit, if not knocked out, had it connected. Dick grunts in frustration as Tim dodges more blows. "Maybe, just maybe, I'm just trying to protect my family."

Dick manages to get in a solid kick to Tim's side. "Yeah, you're doing a great job of showing that." Tim spits out through clenched teeth.

Before Tim has time to recover, Dick goes for another sweep, and this time Tim hits the floor with a loud thud, and Dick is following that with an elbow, but before it connects, there's a high pitch and extremely loud scream from Lian. Dick pauses mid strike. Tim, however, doesn't even hesitate to take the chance to flip back to his feet...landing a few feet away. "STOP IT! Stop it, both of you. It's okay. Tim doesn't have to train me, and I won't go out anymore. It's fine...just stop fighting...please."

Lian never did tell Roy how old she was when her Roy and Dick died, but he's pretty sure that it had to have been when she was fairly young if she's never seen her Tim and Dick fight like this, because that blow would have left a spectacular bruise, but that's about it. Roy hadn't had any intention of breaking the two of them up until it became absolutely necessary. After so many years of dealing with different Bats, Roy's learned that sometimes it's just better to let them beat each other senseless and move on.

The other two just stare at her for a moment before Tim steps toward her. "I can almost guarantee you that this fight would have happened whether you were here or not. Dick's just using you as an excuse to be overbearing, and he doesn't get a say in whether I train you or not. After all, he's not Batman...at least, not anymore. I'll expect you down in the cave at the time that we discussed." Tim doesn't give anyone in the cave time to respond before he walks away.

Dick glances over to Roy. His eyes are begging for backup here, and Roy almost hates himself for being unable to give it. "It's late. We should all get some sleep." It's the first thing that Roy has said since Tim and Lian came back, and the hurt expression on Dick's face makes him wish that he'd just kept silent; but the curt nod and shy, small, almost invisible smile that he gets from Lian reminds him that the tension needed to be broken. He's not sure what's going to happen tomorrow-he isn't even sure if he wants to stay the night, but it's a long drive back to his small dingy apartment. Even if he felt like being alone right now-cut off from everything else (after all, he has no use for a TV and the only phone calls he gets anymore are work related), he doesn't think that he could bear to leave Lian with the still dueling brothers. Roy knows his plan for tomorrow. He just hopes that Dick can put aside whatever he's feeling right now and deal with the decision that Roy's already made.

The End (for now)


	8. Chapter 8

Lian isn't expecting that everything will be hugs and kisses when she walks into the cave with Tim-after all, she did mess up in a major way-but she also isn't expecting to be sent to the shower. She knows Dick and Tim are about to suddenly start fighting. She hurries in order to get back as quickly as possible, because she knows that this is her fault, and she can't let anyone else take the brunt of what she knows she deserves. It isn't surprising for her to hear that Dick is upset with Tim for allowing her to continue with patrol-she still doesn't even know why he did, even though she can't really feel bad about that-but Lian is startled to hear Dick's theory on why she's there. She wants to tell him that it's not true-that she had no idea that she was going to be transported here when the spiraling green light touched her-but she doesn't see a point in speaking up. There's no reason for Dick to believe her.

That thought hurts...hurts so much more than Lian thought it would. She doesn't know why it bothers her so much. It's not as though these people are her family, but a large part of her wants them to like her...wants them to trust her. She doesn't know why for sure, but she thinks it might have something to do with how similar they all are to the others on her own world. She doesn't miss how much Roy seems to really want everything that Dick's saying to be lies, but she can't reassure him, no matter how much she may want to. Lian knows it's better for everyone if she just doesn't say anything right now. It's a delicate matter. She would know that even if she couldn't see the way that Roy keeps edging closer to the other two.

Lian has no idea why Tim is bothering to defend her, but she can't deny that she feels a tinge of relief when he does. However, she still doesn't like watching the two of them argue, and she likes it even less when the heated debate turns physical. Lian never saw her Uncle Tim and Uncle Dick fight. It doesn't matter that she knows that they must have. It still makes her insides knot and her stomach turn. She thinks that she can understand Dick's motives-it isn't as though he knows her, and maybe she wasn't planning to try and convince Roy to come back with her from the start, but she'd be lying if she said it wasn't something that she hopes for now. Still, none of that makes what Lian tells Dick a lie. She is more than willing to put away her suit for the duration of her stay in this world if it means she doesn't have to watch Dick's elbow fly towards Tim's face again.

Nevertheless, Lian can't say that she isn't moderately happy when Tim tells her that it isn't necessary. She still doesn't understand what Tim's reason is for wanting to train her. She can't imagine that it simply has to do with teaching her a better way of fighting. After all, Lian has her own Tim for that. The entire time she stands there watching the fight, all she can do is wonder what the underlying problem is between the two of them. Lian doesn't want to get involved-doesn't think that she has the right to get involved, but clearly something is wrong, and it isn't just her presence here. She has no idea who this Damian character is, or why he got to be Robin, but it doesn't sounds like he deserves the title. At least, not from what little information she's gathering from Tim and Dick. Although, Lian doesn't think that she has any right to decide who gets what suit on any earth; not after all of the mistakes that she's made since arriving in this complicated and overly hero-populated earth.

When the three of them leave the cave to head to bed, Lian just stands there. She doesn't want to intrude. This may not be her earth, but she's pretty sure that the knowledge that the cave and the manor are entirely two separate places and few people are allowed to venture into both is universal. She isn't surprised, however, when she hears soft footfalls coming down the stairs. Lian still doesn't think that she's ready to face this Alfred, but she knew she couldn't avoid it forever. When he finally reaches the last stair, Lian can't help but catalog all the ways that he reminds her of her own Alfed. This one looks younger, of course, due to the lack of smoking, but other than that, he's exactly the same as her Alfred, and she misses the old man so much it hurts.

When he speaks, his voice isn't as raspy, but it still holds the same level of warmth that her Alfred's voice always did, and she has to bite her lip to keep from crying. "I don't know much about your world, Miss, but I presume you don't sleep in the cave."

Lian shakes her head, and tries to ignore the tears welling in her eyes. "I...I don't think it's a good idea for me to be in the manor."

Alfed moves closer to her. "Nonsense, you need your rest, and I won't have you sleeping down here. The others might pick up such bad habits, and they have enough of those already. Now I have already prepared a bed for you. You wouldn't want my hard work to go to waste, now would you, Miss?"

Lian is shaking her head and following him long before she even registers the movement. Although, it's not a surprise. He is an Alfred, and all Alfreds always win-usually with what seems like little to no effort. As Alfred leads her through the manor, Lian can't help but notice all the little differences...like the large vase she broke when she was nine that is apparently still intact here. It makes her homesick, and a little out of sorts. Alfred seems to notice her sudden uneasiness, but doesn't say anything about it as he continues to lead her to the room she'll be staying in. The room is large and just like the guest rooms in the manor back home. It's odd to be staying in one, as opposed to her own room, and it almost makes her want to find the room in this manor that corresponds with her bedroom just to see how different it is from hers back home. It's a silly desire, and she doesn't think that it'll help her cope with this strange world, but the desire is still there all the same.

When Alfred leaves her, he wishes her goodnight in a tone that she hasn't heard in so long that she almost starts to tear up again. She thought she was over her own Alfred's death, but apparently, just like her father's death, it's still a festering wound just waiting for someone to throw some salt into it. Lian doesn't know if she can handle seeing any more people from this world who she's already lost in her own. It all just gets harder and harder, and she really just wants to go back home now...except that she still wants to train with this Tim, and learn everything that she can from the people here, because, even though it hurts, she knows that this is a once in a lifetime chance. She's not about to give it up for something so pathetic as her own emotional distress.

Lian sleeps fitfully, but that's nothing new to her. She's just happy that she's gotten better at keeping quiet. She always feels bad when she wakes Grandpa Bruce or Uncle Tim, and after everything that's happened, she really doesn't want to wake anyone here. Lian doesn't think that she could handle waking this Roy, and making him comfort a girl who isn't his daughter over something as trivial as nightmares. She doesn't think it would be as terrible if it was Tim, but she still doesn't like disturbing people. When she wakes up for good, Lian isn't sure if she should be relieved or anxious that she only has a few minutes to get ready before meeting Tim down in the cave. She hopes that it's just going to be the two of them in there, because she doesn't think that she could take any more tension right now.

When she enters the cave, Lian has to bite her tongue to keep from releasing the sigh of relief building up inside of her when she sees that Tim is standing on the mats waiting for her, and no one else is around. She thinks that maybe they'll be able to get through a training session with little to no drama, and the prospect makes her smile wider than she has in a long time. Tim raises an eyebrow at her when he sees her. "Do you normally train in jeans?"

Lian looks down at herself and blushes slightly. "Don't know if you've noticed, but I only have one outfit-unless you'd rather I train in my suit, 'cause I'm totally okay with that. Also, do you know how annoying it is to be a girl and only have one outfit? I'm not usually all that 'girly,' but it's more obnoxious than I thought it was going to be."

Tim laughs his little whisper of a laugh, and then shakes his head. "Can't say I know what that's like, but I could lend you a pair of sweats, if you want."

Lian smiles, and then nods. "Yeah, that'd probably be best. The last thing I need to is ruin the only pair of pants I own."

Tim walks over to the changing area, and comes back with his extra pair of sweat pants. He tosses them to Lian, who catches them easily. "Do you want a shirt too?" At Lian's nod, he tosses the one he had behind his back. "It's probably a good idea for Alfred to take you shopping later today. We wouldn't want you to have to suffer through only having one outfit." Tim snickers at her, and Lian can't help it. She has to laugh at him. She can tell that he's just being snarky to make her feel better, but it's working, and it's nice not having to deal with anything right now.

"You just don't understand. You're a boy. You don't get to dress up whenever you want to." She pitches her voice into something far more dramatic than anything she would ever actually use, and tosses her hair over her shoulder before grinning ever wider.

"You might be surprised. I mean, I look damn good in a pair of fuck-me pumps, if I do say so myself." Tim's eyes are brimming bright with the laugh that he isn't actually letting out, but his voice is completely deadpan.

Lian laughs at him for a moment before speaking again. "So, do you do a lot of undercover work, or is that just something you like to do in your free time?" She's snickering, and breathing through her nose...trying not to laugh too hard.

Tim doesn't hold his laughter back this time, and it's not nearly as controlled as all of the other laughs she heard before this one. It's a good sound that makes her smile even brighter. It's easy just standing here laughing and mocking each other, and she wonders if this would even be possible with the other two. Her grin grows in intensity at the fact that she actually got him to laugh. Lian doesn't know about this Tim, but she always feels such pride when she can get her Uncle Tim to laugh. "Nah, just undercover." Tim flutters a hand near his face, and strikes a dramatic female pose. "I'm just not pretty enough to be out in the daytime." His voice is falsely high, and he's smiling like he just won something.

Lian can't take it after that. She falls to the floor, clutching her middle, and laughing harder than she can remember ever doing before. After a few minutes of just lying on the cave floor trying to catch her breath Tim comes over and offers her his hand. "Okay, I think it's time for you to go change, and for us to start working."

Lian takes his hand, and lets him pull her to her feet. "Oh, come on, you had fun."

Tim smiles again, and pushes her in the direction of the changing area. "You can prove nothing."

Lian giggles the whole way to the changing area. Her face is flushed and probably as red as the shirt Tim lent her. She feels like she's already gone two rounds with someone, and she loves it. She's not surprised that Tim's clothes fit her, and she can't wait to find out what he's going to teach her. When Lian emerges from the changing area, her good mood plummets a little when she sees Roy standing on the mats with Tim. She doesn't want another fight, and she really just wants to train, but she stops herself from saying anything and keeps her sigh to herself. Roy smiles at her when she moves closer to the mats, and Tim still looks just as relaxed as before, so maybe there won't be a fight, after all.

"What's up?" She's not really sure she wants the answer, but Lian knows it's better to just get it over with. She ties up her hair to give herself a little more time to look anywhere but at Roy's face.

Tim moves out of the way of her vicious ponytail whip once she's finished, and Lian bites her lip to keep from laughing again. "Roy wants to help you with your archery."

Lian is really torn between just saying thanks and telling him that she doesn't need his help, and she's not really sure why. She knows that there's always room for improvement-Grandpa Bruce has certainly drilled that into her head-but she doesn't want something she enjoys as much as archery to become uncomfortable, or worse start having a bad connotation to it. Lian glances from one to the other. Tim apparently thinks that this is a good thing, and a step in the right direction, and Roy seems just as unsure and apprehensive as she is. Lian nods and gives a small shy smile of reassurance to Roy. "That's good." She looks directly into Roy's eyes, meeting his gaze for a few moments before she repeats herself. "That's really good."

He seems to relax a little at her words, and Lian can't help but feel like she did at least one thing right. She knows that it isn't technically her job to put everyone else at ease, but it makes her feel better-feel useful-so she's willing to at least try. Tim claps his hands together to get their attention. "Okay, well, while Roy sets up the targets, why don't you show me what katas your Bruce and Tim have taught you?"

Lian moves from one kata into another fluidly, just as she was taught. She stops thinking about everything around her, and focuses fully on her movements. This is normal...this is simple...this is something she can do in her sleep. Lian has always enjoyed her physical training, mainly because she doesn't have to think about it. Instead, she can just move, and let her body do what it wants. It's one of the few times she gets to move freely, and it's something that she's always enjoyed. When she finishes Tim nods, and then starts showing her some new ones. He clearly knows far more than she does, and Lian soaks up the lessons the same way she always has, no matter the teacher. The fact that her current teacher happens to have few differences from her normal one means nothing, because, while there are small differences, they're enough alike that she still just has to watch and learn, and let him move her when she isn't exactly in the right position. It's something she got used to when she was still a child, and it's not any different now.

When they finish Tim tells her to go practice with Roy while he gets out some practice weapons. This practically makes her gleam, because, not only does she get to work on her archery with someone who's first love is archery, but she also gets to work with other weapons. Her Uncle Tim usually saves that as a reward or when they both just need to have some fun. Lian is still slightly apprehensive about working with Roy, but she figures it can't possibly hurt any more than anything else thus far, so she takes a deep breath before heading over to where Roy has set up the targets. He turns to her and smiles a little. "I doubt you'll need any pointers or anything, but, well, there's a difference between working on archery with someone who happens to know about it, and working with someone who enjoys it as much as I do."

Lian nods, but doesn't say anything...mostly because she figured as much. The two of them stand a few feet apart. He watches silently as she strings her bow, and gets ready to fire. Lian has never felt this uneasy while holding a bow in her entire life, and it puts her completely off her game. He moves to adjust her stance, but she holds up a hand to stop. "Just give me a second. This is a little weird for me."

He stares at her for a moment with an expression that makes him look just as awkward as she feels. She feels bad for making him stop, but she's not some amateur, and she can surely find the proper stance if she can just get her head in the game. Lian rolls her shoulders, shakes out her hands-one at a time-and then cracks her neck, and that's when it hits her. This is game...or at least it can be. She doesn't have to be as tense as she is. He's just another guy, and she's just doing what she always does...what she knows best. Lian grins to herself, and then strings her bow again. After a handful of shots Roy smiles at her a little brighter, and then offers her just a few pointers...clearly unsure if he should. She adjusts herself the way he tells her to, and well, it's not as though she ever thought she was perfect, but Lian is still extremely surprised to find how much easier this is when she takes his suggestions.

After a few more shots, all perfect and taking far less strain than she's used to Roy picks up his bow too, and the two of them stand in companionable silence as they practice. After a short time, Lian notices her face is hurting from smiling so much. She's enjoying this far more than she ever thought she would. It's a little odd. She's always enjoyed working with her Uncle Tim, and that includes working on her archery with him, but it's never been like this before. This is just so soothing and simple, and Lian is almost shocked to find how at ease she is right now. She's almost as calm and as laid-back as she ever gets, and she feels guilty for it-like she's somehow cheating on her other family. The thought makes her pause for a moment, because she isn't exactly sure when she started thinking of these people as her second family, and Lian's a little worried about the fallout of that decision. She wants to go back home...hell, needs to, but she wants to stay here too, and it seems a little ridiculous to her that it took such a short time for her to become so attached to everyone here...including Dick...no matter how he feels toward her.

Once Lian and Roy decide to stop, Tim makes her drink an entire bottle of water before he lets her even look at the practice weapons, and she sulks slightly about that, but not a lot seeing as how that's really no different from her own Tim. As it turns out, Lian is actually far thirstier than she thought, and she ends up drinking two whole bottles of water, which both Tim and Roy seem pleased about, before moving back to the mats with Tim. She's not really sure why either one of them are pleased with her water intake, but she can only assume that it's because they have to argue with certain other people to get them to drink the recommended amount of fluids. Lian doesn't see any reason to tell them that she learned her lesson a long time ago...probably right after that time that her Uncle Tim sat on her and forced a bottle of water down her gullet.

Tim allows her to choose whatever weapon she wants, and grabs a practice bo staff, which makes her chuckle to herself. She's starting to get used to the fact that this Tim is so much like her own. Lian doesn't know if all Tims tend to prefer bo staffs or if it's just the ones she knows, but it makes everything just a little easier to deal with. He raises an eyebrow when she chooses the shurikens, but doesn't say anything, and Lian feels like it should be obvious. After all, every archer she's ever known has always preferred long range weapons, and she knows her father always had a thing for katanas, and the extension of reach it gave him, but she has always preferred weapons that she could make fly. Lian raises her own eyebrow at Tim, and his face immediately breaks into a meager smile. "Sometimes I forget how much you've picked up from your own Tim, and then I see one of my own expressions on your face, and it's a little odd. Also, I assume you practice with shurikens with your Tim a lot."

Lian grins as well. "I take it you like them, too, then?"

Tim nods. "One of my favorites. I like how different they are from the batarangs."

Lian smile brightens at that. "Me too."

Tim motions for her to start the spar, and Lian laughs. This doesn't feel any different from training back home, especially since this Tim blanks his face the same way, and clearly watches her feet for any obvious mistakes that should be corrected immediately. Apparently no Tim appreciates taking out their sparring partner in the first three seconds due to poor foot placement. Lian laughs to herself at the thought, because it's been awhile since she's gotten any lectures on that portion of sparring. After Tim's satisfied that this spar isn't going to be that big of a disappointment, he makes it impossible to tell where his eyes are focusing, and that fascinates her, because she thought that the ability to wear a mask without physically wearing one was a purely Uncle Tim trait. Even her Grandpa Bruce doesn't blank his eyes that well...usually, but she's pretty sure that he just doesn't bother doing so with her anymore.

Tim swings the bo staff around, and nearly knocks her off her feet, and Lian silently berates herself for not paying attention. She hadn't even noticed that he had gotten that close to her. She shakes her head as if to clear it, and then realizes that he only managed to get as close as he had, because Tim's deliberately using moves that she's never seen before. He's trying to figure out exactly how much her Tim hasn't shown her yet-or worse, and probably more likely, doesn't know, because her Bruce was taken out before he got a chance to teach Uncle Tim this stuff. Lian makes a mental note to remember everything that she learns here, so that she can show her Uncle Tim all of it when she gets back home. Lian flips away from him, and tosses three of her shurikens towards him in the middle of her arc. Tim knocks all of them away with his staff, but smiles his approval at her attempt.

Lian grips her last two shurikens in her hands, and waits for Tim's next move. He gestures for her to move first, and Lian licks her teeth. She's determined to get a hit in before this spar ends. She throws one of the shuriken, waits for Tim to knock it aside with his staff again, and then moves in lightning fast...just like she was taught, and starts hitting. Tim manages to block most of her hits with the staff and his feet, but she still has one shuriken left, and she's been clutching it since her last throw just waiting for the opportunity to use it. Lian doesn't have to wait long. Tim brings the staff up to block a punch to his face, she then forces him to move the foot closest to her with a kick, and then she throws the shuriken at his exposed foot still balancing him. Tim flips back with the bo staff tucked close to him for balance, and Lian barely manages it, but she gets a solid kick to his back. Tim doesn't even land before she lets out a loud yes, and pumps her fist in the air.

Roy lets out a laugh behind her, and Lian realizes that she didn't even know that he was still here. She doesn't know how long he's been watching, but the sound of his laughter makes her spin around. His face is red, and he looks really damn happy, and Lian has to smile too, because this is probably the best she's felt in-she doesn't know how long. She's about to say something, but before she can, Lian is knocked to the ground by a solid weight hitting her in the back, and then Tim has her pinned to the mats. "I didn't say the spar was over."

Lian breathes out a laugh, and struggles to get up, but apparently Tim doesn't think she's learned her lesson yet. "I got a hit in that was good enough for me."

Tim makes a disapproving noise above her. "The spar doesn't end just because you got a hit in."

Lian breathes into the mat beneath her, and tries not to smile...and fails miserably. "Yeah, but you can't say that you weren't surprised that I did."

Tim chuckles softly before standing and helping her up. "Maybe I was a little, or maybe I expected you to get a hit in."

Lian shakes her head, and tucks the few locks that fall out of her ponytail behind her ear. "We both know you had no such expectation."

Tim grins at her slightly before sending her off to go shower. She sticks her tongue out before heading off to go do as she's told. It's been awhile since she's gotten to be just as petulant as she wants, and she's living it up for as long as it lasts. She's spent so long living in a world that's so deadly serious, that even if this world is only marginally better, it's still a nice vacation.

The End (for now)


	9. Chapter 9

Roy knows that Dick isn't going to be pleased with the decision that he's made, but there's not much he can do about that now-especially since he's already walking down the cave steps. He's really hoping that the previous fight has worn Dick out enough that he doesn't even want to enter the cave, because Roy is pretty sure that none of them can handle another fight. He has no idea why Tim defended Lian throughout that entire argument, but he's fairly certain that it has a lot more to do with his relationship with Dick than anything Lian may or may not have said to him while they were still on patrol. It doesn't really matter, anyway; because when he gets into the cave, Dick's nowhere to be found, and Tim's standing on the mats-clearly waiting for Lian-looking more relaxed than Roy's ever seen him. At least, that is, until he spots Roy.

"Hey." He's not really sure how else to start this conversation. All Roy knows is that he didn't come down here this early in the morning to stand in silence with the second youngest Bat.

Tim nods at him. "Is there something I can help you with, Red Arrow?"

Roy wants to wince at the kid's reaction. He's standing here in a gray shirt and blue gym shorts...not exactly Red Arrow's normal attire. They've known each other long enough that Roy is well aware that Tim only uses that professional tone in a circumstance like this, when he's already defensive. If there's one thing Roy knows about Robins, it's how territorial and defensive they can be. Roy holds up his hands in the air. "Whoa, it's okay. I'm not here to start another fight about you training her."

Tim raises an eyebrow at him, but doesn't look slightly relieved or any less ready for a fight. "Then why are you here?"

Roy sighs to himself. He's always known that none of the Bats ever make things easy, but he often wonders why it's always this hard. "I want to help you train her."

Tim stares at him skeptically. "Oh really?" At Roy's nod, Tim continues. "And why is that?"

Roy doesn't really know what to say. It's not like he thought this out...not to this former Robin's standards, anyway. He just knows that he has to do this. "I don't want Dick to be right, but I can't deny that his thinking is sound. After all, we don't know this girl, but I can't just sit here while you train this girl and not help. Not to mention that you're a Bat, which means that just because you know how to use a bow, doesn't mean you know what it's like to love the bow. I can tell you from experience that training with someone who simply knows the weapon well and someone who loves and needs the weapon in question is incredibly different."

Tim nods at him. "I know what you mean." When he catches Roy's raised eyebrow, Tim continues. "It's the same way with my bo staff."

Roy's about to say something, but he's interrupted when Lian calls out, "What's up?" They both turn at the sound of her voice, and Roy has to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. It shouldn't be a surprise that's she's wearing a set of Tim's workout clothes, nor should it surprise him that they fit her so well. He's pretty sure Tim is always going to be on the thin side.

It's almost painful for him to see how playful these two are with each other. He wonders if his Lian would have ever grown to be this carefree with Tim had she lived longer. Roy doesn't think he'd ever be able to imagine it, but as he watches Lian try to smack Tim with her ponytail, he can't help but consider it. Roy keeps the laugh to himself as Tim dodges, and reminds himself that he really doesn't want to know what being on the receiving end of her ponytail whip is like.

He's really glad that Tim does most of the talking, because he really didn't contemplate what she would think about all of this. He doesn't want her to get the impression that he doesn't think that she's capable of wielding a bow correctly, because that's not what this is about, at all. Roy just knows the difference between people who grew up stringing a bow with an arrow and people who treat it as just another weapon to master. He fully believes that this girl deserves to know what it's like to practice with the former, which is just one more point on his suddenly long list of reasons for why he decided to help Tim train her in the first place.

He goes to set up the targets for them, and pointedly ignores Tim and Lian on the other side of the cave. Roy doesn't really want to see any more similarities between the two of them just yet. He's still trying to deal with the fact that she's apparently enough like Tim to convince him to let her patrol after everything that happened. Roy is still trying to figure that one out. Tim is supposed to be the emotionless, logical, rational Robin, so Roy isn't really sure what she could have said or done to change his mind so easily. After all, Roy is fairly certain that Tim's original plan wasn't to allow her to continue her patrol; but, then again, Roy is pretty sure that the only person who really knows what Tim's planning at any given moment is Tim.

Working on archery with Lian is a little odd at first. It's obvious that neither one of them is entirely sure how this is supposed to work. He's busy trying to avoid all the thoughts of what his daughter would have been like with a bow once she was this Lian's age, and he's pretty sure that she's thinking of her dad. At least, Roy can't really imagine how she isn't doing so. It takes him far longer than he wants to admit to finally just put aside everything that he's thinking and just focus on the arrow's trajectory as it flies toward the target. He's surprised to find how well she takes direction-especially from him. Roy wasn't exactly expecting her to be hostile, but the fact that Lian just adjusts her stance without asking him why it's necessary is something he doesn't expect to ever get used to.

After they break for water, Roy watches as she goes over to the practice weapons. He doesn't think that he's seen her this happy or excited since she got here, and that makes him slightly worried. Roy almost wants to ask Tim if he thinks that it's a good idea to spar with her with weapons after what she did on patrol, but he knows better than to question a Bat about training. Roy silently watches the spar. He's fascinated by how controlled both of them are with every movement. It's clear that they're both enjoying this, as well as testing each other and learning from each other. Watching how relaxed and happy they both are is making Roy itch with the need to teach Lian all of the defensive things that she can do with a bow. Sometimes there's just nothing as satisfying as seeing a guy crumble after jabbing the bow into his gut and smashing it across his face.

Roy's thoughts are interrupted, however, when Lian lets out a loud, "Yes!" and Roy can't help but laugh. He knows what it's like to want nothing more than to get just one hit in before the end of the spar, and from the expression Lian is wearing, it's clear that this was one of those moments for her. It's probably ten times better that the spar was against Tim, because no one makes getting a hit in as difficult as a member of the Batfamily.

After Tim sends her to go shower, Roy comes over and lays a hand on his shoulder. "You're good for each other, you know that?"

Tim raises an eyebrow at him. "Um...what?"

Roy laughs at Tim's obvious confusion. "You help her feel like she belongs and allow her to be the 15-year-old girl that I'd bet she rarely gets to be back home, and she helps you to relax. It's nice to see you being playful with a sparring partner again. I mean, I can't remember the last time I've seen you like this. Every time I've seen you spar with Dick or Damian, it's like you're fighting for your life."

Tim glances down at the ground and blushes brightly. "I...I don't know. It's just like helping one of the girls back when we were in Young Justice. I don't really see the big deal. She clearly has extensive training, but there's still so much more that we could all teach her. I just feel like it's wrong to send her back to a place that has killed so many heroes without teaching her everything that we can."

Roy nods in understanding. "Believe it or not, that's why I'm down here. Dick may be right...she may be pulling the wool over our eyes, and we may be letting her because of who she is and who she isn't, but I can't, in good conscience, send her home without at least trying."

Tim opens his mouth to respond, but before he gets a chance, they're both interrupted. "So, that's why you're doing this...both of you?" They both turn to see Dick glaring at them from the cave steps. "Am I the only one who cares about protecting the people we love?"

Tim sighs. "Are we really going to do this again? I'm training her, and Roy's helping. Why can't you just deal with that?"

Dick looks truly frustrated with the conversation and it's just started. Roy can't see this ending well. He's almost starting to wonder if Dick purposely waits for Lian to go shower before he starts these type of fights with Tim or if it's just coincidence. "Tim, I just don't want her learning everything about us just so she can be better at running around maiming people. I'm just trying to protect our family."

Tim scoffs at that, and from the expression on his face, Roy can tell that Dick's not going to like what Tim has to say next. "If you're so concerned with trying to protect us, Dick, then why don't you keep Damian on a tighter leash. How many times has that kid tried to kill me? Hell, the only reason Bruce took Damian with him on the off-world mission they're on is because the kid cut holes into my glider...again."

Dick moves closer to Tim, so that he can wrap an arm around his shoulders. "Look, it's just Damian's version of sibling rivalry."

Roy doesn't have anything to say to that, and he's fairly certain that the best course of action here is to quietly make his exit. Unfortunately, he can't just leave Lian here. After all, no Arrow is safe when two Bats are fighting, and getting caught in those cross-hairs is far worse than being confronted by any assassin. Tim shrugs off Dick's arm, and spins away from him. "I don't get what your problem is, and quite frankly, I don't care. I'm training her...end of story. You can either get over whatever made-up issue you have and help me or you can stay out of my way, but you can't stop me. And before you even start about it not being a made-up issue, you took on an assassin-trained Robin, who was trying to kill us all, Dick."

Dick folds his arms over his chest, and glares at Tim. "You know what I don't get, Tim? I don't get what your big problem with Damian is. After all, you were trained by an assassin, too, and Damian is working through years of conditioning, thanks to Talia."

Roy's starting to wonder if Dick's trying to get Tim to hit him, because even tactless-Roy can see that bringing that up isn't helping anyone's cause right now. Tim growls at him. "You want to know what my problem with him is, Dick? My problem is, he's tried to kill me multiple times, and that doesn't seem to phase you one bit. I'm just supposed to put aside every negative emotion I have in relation to that kid because he has Bruce's DNA. You chose him to be Robin, and what? The fact that we're some definition of brothers is suppose to matter? Come on, Dick, that's not logical."

Dick stares at him sadly for a moment. "I don't know what to tell you, Timmy. He's not going away, so you're just going to have to learn to live with him."

Tim shakes his head at that. "No, I really don't, Dick."

Roy has no idea what Tim means by that, and from the look of it, neither does Dick. They both stare at him for a moment, neither one of them catching his drift. After a few moments, Dick speaks up again. "What do you mean, Tim?"

Tim gives him the most defiant look that Roy's ever seen on this particular Robin. "I don't have to learn to live with him, Dick. I don't have to stay here."

Dick's eyes widen, and he glances at Roy with an extremely pathetic 'help me' expression. Roy doesn't have any idea what to say to either of them, and just shrugs at Dick. Roy wants nothing else than to grab Lian and get the hell out of here, because even Arrows aren't equipped to deal with this type of argument. Dick tries to place a hand on Tim's shoulder again, but Tim backs away from him, and turns to Roy. "Tell Purple Arrow that I'll be in touch. I still have plenty to teach her."

Roy doesn't even get a chance to ask Tim what the hell he means by that before the kid is on his bike and out of the cave. Both Roy and Dick just stand there dumbfounded until Lian emerges from her shower, and finds them still standing in the same spot. She swiftly glances around the cave. "Where's Tim, and what did I miss?"

Roy doesn't give Dick a chance to respond. He's already driven one person out of the cave, and Roy isn't about to let him do the same with another. "Nothing, honey, he had to go out for a bit. I don't know when he'll be back, but he said that he still has plenty to teach you, so don't worry. I think it's time for you to go upstairs and get something to eat anyway."

Lian looks between the two of them, and bites her lip uncertainly. "Are you sure? Maybe I should just stay down here in case..."

She doesn't get to finish her sentence before Roy has an arm wrapped around her shoulders. "No, no, you know Alfred would be extremely upset with us if he knew that we kept you down here this long without feeding you. You go ahead, and we'll meet you up there. I've just gotta have a chat with Dickie-bird first." Roy hopes that the nickname will lure her into a false sense of security. He has no idea if it works or not, but, with a minor push towards the stairs, she leaves them alone in the cave.

The moment he's sure that she's gone, Roy rounds on Dick. "I don't know how, but you're going to find Tim, and you're going to fix this. I can't believe you just made him leave."

Roy has plenty more to say, but he pauses when he sees Dick hold up his hands to stop him. "I'm not the one who went behind my back, and..."

Roy's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Tim didn't go behind your back."

Dick glares at him. "I wasn't talking about Tim."

Roy's eyebrows fly up into his hair line at that. "Wait, what? Me? You're talking about me now? I didn't go behind your back." At Dick's 'oh really' expression, Roy continues. "Okay, I didn't tell you that I was going to help train her, but that's because you seemed to be so against it. And I can't just not help her, Dick. Look, I'm sorry. I know this seems like you against the world here, but you have no proof that everything that you think about her is accurate, and Tim and I can't just send her back without trying to improve her skills...not when so many of us have died in her world. I thought you of all people would understand that."

Dick glances down at the ground for a moment. "I do understand it, Roy, but I can't trust someone who so easily influences Tim."

Roy honestly has to bite his tongue to keep from laughing at that. "Wait, that's what this is all about? She 'easily influenced' Tim, and now you're freaking out? Maybe she just gave a good argument, Dick."

"Or maybe she's an evil, soul sucking..."

Dick didn't even get a chance to finish his rant before Roy broke out into gut-wrenching laughter. "Oh man, you think that she's evil because she convinced Tim to let her continue to patrol. Wow, I guess I should be happy that I never had such an overprotective big brother. Man, maybe he just likes her."

Dick shakes his head at him. "That is not what this is about."

Roy's still smiling like an idiot, but most of the laughter has subsided. "Yeah, whatever, you say, bird brain. I'm going to go upstairs and get a sandwich or something. You should go find the second littlest bird, and talk it out with him. I'm sure he'll tell you all about how he doesn't need the big bad Nightwing's protection." Roy doesn't pay any attention to Dick's squawk of indignation as he walks up the stairs and out of the cave.

The End (for now)


	10. Chapter 10

She's in the shower enjoying the hot water and the way that it's loosening up her muscles after such a fun workout, when Lian realizes something. She honestly can't wait until her next training session with both Tim and Roy. She almost feels guilty for wanting it so badly, since they're both taking time out of their busy schedules to work with her, but Lian can't really feel all that remorseful about it, because it genuinely was the most fun that she's had in a long while. She frankly can't believe how much she enjoyed her training session with both of them. She almost can't conceive why she ever thought that it was going to invoke bad connotations. It's understandable that working on the archery was awkward at first, but she's still surprised at how soon the awkwardness melted away, leaving nothing but easiness and a smile on both of their faces.

Lian is still smiling when she emerges from the shower, humming to herself. The smile remains even after she's dressed in her only pair of jeans and the one shirt that she has-which she really needs to rectify before anything else happens. Lian is thinking about her favorite shops to visit, and she's wondering if they'll be the same in this world. She walks back into the cave proper, and stops. Her smile vanishes immediately when she sees Dick standing there, with Roy staring vacantly at some spot to her left. She can tell that something awful transpired while she was in the shower...she just doesn't know what. As she glances around the cave, the first thing that Lian notices is that Tim is nowhere to be found, and when she asks where he is, the answer that she gets in return doesn't make any of her uneasiness go away, but she can tell that Roy is trying, so she lets him push her towards the stairs.

Whens she gets to the kitchen, Alfred is there-almost as though he was waiting for her. Lian has never been able to figure out how her own Alfred was always right where someone needed him-when he or she needed to talk to with him-but it doesn't surprise her even a little bit that this Alfred seems to have the same trait. Lian sits down at the kitchen table, and sighs heavily. "Alfred, do you think that it'd be better if I left? I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find Superman...I mean, if your Superman is alive...mine is, but it doesn't take a genius to see how different our worlds are. Anyway, I'm sure Superman could contact someone to get me back home, right? I don't have to stay here. I think that maybe it'd be best for everyone. I mean, I wouldn't be a constant reminder to Roy of what he's lost. Tim and Dick would go back to actually getting along, I think. After all, it's not like I really know what happened down there this time, but it's clear that something happened, and well...it's not like I can't handle myself. Maybe..."

Lian stops talking the moment that she feels a warm hand on her shoulder. She turns toward Alfred, and then quickly returns her attention to her hands in her lap. "Oh, I'm rambling, aren't I?" She glances back at him, and when she sees Alfred's raised eyebrow, Lian continues. "It's just that whenever I would ramble on like that, my Alfred would always lay his hand on my shoulder, and it would stop me immediately. I just assumed the gesture means the same here, right?"

Alfred nods slightly to her. "If I may, miss?" She gestures for him to continue. "I don't believe your leaving would improve any of these circumstances. Master Roy will undoubtedly believe that he failed you in someway, and I'm afraid that the situation between Master Dick and Master Tim has been brewing for sometime. Unfortunately, their relationship was strained, to say the least, long before you came to us. The boys have been doing an admirable job of avoiding their many issues, but I'm afraid their inevitable falling out was always going to happen. I'm sorry that you seem to be caught in the middle of it, but know this. You are not the cause of any misfortunes in this house."

Lian gives him the tiniest of smiles. "Thank you, Alfred. I just feel like none of this would be happening if I hadn't been dropped here like a forgotten bag of luggage."

Alfred stares at her seriously for a moment. "I assure you, miss, no one in this family has ever forgotten their luggage. I can only hope that the same goes for your family back home."

Lian laughs at that, and grins a little brighter. "Thanks again, Alfred. Um, would you mind if I hugged you?"

Alfred's eyes soften for a moment, and he opens his arms slightly. "I wouldn't mind at all."

Lian launches herself into his arms, and only manages not to knock him over by sheer force of will. "You're the best, Alfie. In fact, I think that the only person who can't beat you is another version of yourself."

Alfred smiles for a moment. "I see even you have become accustomed to using that particular nickname."

"Huh?" Lian pulls back from the hug, clearly confused before realization dawns on her. "Oh, um, I used to call my Alfred Alfie all the time. You don't mind, do you?"

Alfred stands up a little straighter. "Certainly not, miss. Now, I think it's time for me to start making something to eat for you. I'm sure those boys didn't insist on breakfast before training."

Lian laughs again, and is on her way out the door when she remembers something. "Hey Alfred, if you're not busy later could we go shopping? I'm kind of sick of only having one outfit."

"I took the liberty of doing just that this morning. There are some outfits in your closet, which I think will be to your liking, but if you wish for something different, we can leave after you've eaten."

Lian can't help the grin that breaks out on her face at that, because, of course, Alfred already bought her clothes. What on earth had she been thinking? "Thank you, Alfred. I think I'm going to go try them on now."

"Very well, miss."

Lian is halfway up the stairs when it occurs to her that she has yet to learn anything about these people beyond what they've told her, and she knows for a fact that her Uncle Tim and Grandpa Bruce would both be severely disappointed in her if they knew that. She stops for a moment and thinks about what the worst case scenario of her next decision is, and well...it's not like Dick trusts her anyway, and she's pretty sure that Roy will just give her a lecture about respecting other people's privacy...a lecture which is easily thwarted by the fact that she was raised by Bats. Lian has no idea what Tim will think or say, but she's fairly certain that he's the one who will most likely understand her need to do this. At least, she hopes so.

Lian silently creeps down the hallway, stopping at the room that corresponds with her Uncle Tim's room back home, and slips inside to look around. She's not surprised that it's not all that different from her Uncle Tim's room. In fact, the only real difference is the fact that there are a lot more pictures of Dick and no pictures of her. Everything else seems to be exactly the same. It would be creepy if she hadn't already expected as much. Lian continues looking around for a few moments before she moves on. There's not much of interest in the next couple of rooms, which isn't surprising. The set up of which rooms are used and which ones aren't is basically the same as the Manor she calls home.

When she gets to the room with circus posters, Lian knows exactly who's room it is, and she seriously considers just passing it up and moving on. But she knows that if she wants to learn more about Dick, this is the best way to do it. After all, he's probably never going to trust her enough to answer her questions, and she feels weird asking Roy about him. As she slides into the room, she ignores the shiver of eeriness that goes through her. She doesn't like going into this particular room back home, because of how ominous it feels.

It's not completely the same here. After all, it's clear that this room is at least slightly lived in. Lian is well aware that Dick doesn't still live in the manor. He's only here for as long as Bruce is off-world, and his room reflects that, but it's not like its counterpart on her world. That room is a untouchable monument to the Dick Grayson who died there, and every time one of her family members even has to go past it their eyes glaze over with the ghost of their past. Lian honestly believes that it's the worst for her Uncle Tim. Every time he even so much as glances in the direction of that room he breaks a little, and it takes a long time before she gets her Uncle Tim back, and he always looks a little more haunted every time.

Lian wonders how long it's been since this Tim and Dick have just hung out. It was obvious to her the moment that she saw them interact that it's been a while since Dick has been here for anything other than work, but how long exactly, she has no way of knowing. She wants to tell them to stop it-to just put everything aside, because Lian has seen what not having Dick around has done to her Tim, and she doesn't want that to happen here. Her Tim often looks so lost, and it's always clear that the only one who can help him is a big brother whom he'll never get to see again. She doesn't want this family to know what that's like-to have to watch the people they love fall apart a little more each time the missing person is even so much as mentioned, and it's truly despairing to see it happening here while both parties are still alive. Lian wants to shake them both, but she doesn't think it'd do any good. They need each other, and eventually they're going to have to realize it and tell each other such. Lian just hopes that happens before it's too late.

She leaves the room, and heads back to the one she's staying in. Lian won't call it her own room, because it's not. Her room has blue walls with purple accents, and is in a completely different Manor outside of a completely different Gotham on entirely different earth. Lian opens her closet, and looks at the clothes, and nearly burst into laughter-or tears-she can't tell. It's not as though she didn't believe Alfred when he said that she would like the clothes, but it's a little unsettling that she happens to own that particular shirt, those shoes, that skirt, those two dresses, and three pairs of the exact same jeans back in her own world. It's even odder that the garments are hung in the exact same place here as they are in her closet back home. Lian shakes her head, and decides to focus on the stuff that she doesn't have back home. There are some really nice red heels that she would never have even thought of wearing back home. She considers using her time here to branch out, and try new styles.

After Lian makes her way through the closet, she sits on the bed, and just breathes. Before she made it back to this room she seriously considered checking out Bruce's room to see how different it is from her Grandpa Bruce's, but that would be too weird-even for her, so instead she just sits and thinks about what she's learned about the other two. Lian is in the middle of trying to come up with the best way to get Dick and Tim to spend more time together without fighting, when there's a knock at her door. She gets up to answer it instead of just calling to the person to come in, because she always hates it when Uncle Tim or Grandpa Bruce does that, and pauses when she sees Roy at the door.

He smiles at her as though he's trying to calm a skittish animal, and it makes her want to laugh, but she bites her tongue instead. "Um, Alfred wanted me to come and get you. He said that it's time to eat, and he wanted to know what you thought of the outfits he bought you."

Lian blushes slightly. "I like them...some of them were a little different from my usual style, but I don't see any reason not to try something new."

He smiles at her a little easier now, and they both make their way down to the kitchen. "Well, that's good."

The two of them eat in silence, while Lian tries the best way to broach the subject she's been dancing around since Roy showed up at her door. She doesn't want to put him on edge, especially since he seems so relaxed right now, but she can't avoid it forever. Finally, after what feels like forever, Lian sets down her fork, and looks him straight in the eye. "Is Tim coming back?"

Roy glances up at her, but doesn't say anything for a few seconds. "What makes you think Tim isn't coming back?" He finally asks her.

Lian rolls her eyes at him. "Come on, dad. I'm not an idiot I know something happened."

Both of their eyes widen at her wording, and neither of them says anything for a long moment. After a time, he clears his throat. "I'm sure Tim will come back once he's had time to calm down."

She stares down at her plate, and just pushes the rest of her food around. It's good, and taste just like all of her Alfred's cooking, which means it's perfect, but she's lost her appetite. "I'm sorry." She mutters lamely to her plate.

He reaches over, and squeezes the hand she has just laying on the table. "It's okay. It was just a slip of the tongue. I know this whole situation has to be hard for you."

She nods mutely, before she pushes away from the table. "Well, I think I'm going to go read or something. See you later, Roy." She forces the last word out like a particularly painful piece of glass.

Lian returns to the room she's staying in, and curls up on the bed with a pillow wrapped in her arms. She presses her face into the pillow and just breathes heavily. Lian can't begin to imagine why she keeps messing up here. She's wondering if it has something to do with this place, because she's never had this amount of trouble controlling herself back home, and every time something like this happens she misses her home more and more.

Lian wants her Grandpa Bruce, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Barbara, because she knows for certain that if she ever had this type of trouble back home they'd be able to give her pointers, or at least tell her what to do. Right now, she doesn't have a clue. She feels like she's free falling, and, for once, Lian doesn't like it. She doesn't know if she's going to be able to catch onto something before she hits the ground, and the feeling is making her queasy. This isn't something that she's equipped to deal with. With every other problem that she's ever faced in her life, she's had either someone there to help her through it, or at least some sort of background knowledge on the topic at hand. This? This is completely new, and she doesn't know how to react. It's making it harder and harder for her to be around the others, which is just making her reconsider leaving.

She knows what Alfred said is true, and she knows that running away is rarely the right option, but she can't help but think that maybe Tim had the right idea. That maybe the best thing to do is to go find someone else to help her get back home. Sure, maybe Dick's and Tim's problem has been an ongoing one for awhile, but that doesn't mean that she needs to stay here, and keep making Roy's life harder.

After all, he didn't ask for some obnoxious 15-year-old to land in his lap, and destroy whatever measure of happiness he's managed to work into his life since his daughter died. Lian is up and reaching for the latch on her window before she can even think about it, but before she can get it all the way open there's someone behind her. She glances over her shoulder to find Dick standing in her doorway looking rather uncomfortable. Lian pulls her hand away from the latch like she's been burned, and is suddenly three feet away from the window. "Um, can I help you?" She highly doubts that Dick didn't notice what she was doing, but Lian has always believed in innocent until proven guilty.

Dick doesn't shuffle his feet, but he looks like he really wants to. "Um...I think we should talk."

Lian nods, and sits down on the bed again. She's not sure if she's trying to put him at ease, by looking as unimposing as possible, or if she's just trying to make herself feel more comfortable. Either way, the moment she sits back against the headboard he seems to relax. "What do you want to talk about?" Lian isn't good enough to keep the wariness from her voice, and quite frankly she's too emotionally exhausted right now to care.

Dick sighs and starts pacing around the room. "I've been kind of hard on you lately, and I'm sorry. It just freaked me out a little that you seem to have gotten so close to Tim in such a short time. I mean, I've known that kid for a long time, and it still feels like he's a million miles away from me most days."

Lian just nods again, not really sure what to say. "I...I think it's just easier for him to be around me, because we're closer in age, you know? It's like working with a big brother or something."

Dick pauses in his pacing to stare at her for a moment. "Yeah, I guess. I...this is going to sound really weird, but I think I was just kind of jealous of you. It's been so long since Tim has treated me like anything more than a coworker, and...well...I guess I just kind of miss it, you know?"

Lian smiles at him shyly. "You miss your little brother."

Dick stops pacing completely at that, and faces her. "Yeah, yeah, I do."

"I understand. My Uncle Tim misses his big brother, too. The difference is my Uncle Tim can never get his big brother back." Lian really hopes that this gets through to Dick, because she really doesn't want either of them to have to face the world without each other.

Dick looks like he's caught between wanting to hug her and hug himself. After a moment or two, he gives in, comes over, and wraps his arms around her. "Want to help me go find Timmy?"

Lian buries herself into the hug, because no one hugs like Dick Grayson-who hugs with his entire body-and it's been a long time since her Uncle Dick hugged her, but that doesn't mean she's forgotten what it's like. She just didn't realize how much she missed it until now. "Yeah, I'd love to." She squeezes him tighter for a moment, before letting go. "Thank you, and I promise not to do anything you don't approve of."

Dick smiles at her, and that's almost better than the hug. "Well, then get your gear Purple Arrow. We've got work to do."

The End (for now)


	11. Chapter 11

Roy isn't surprised that, when he walks into the kitchen Alfred already has a cup of coffee sitting on the table waiting for him. He sits down in front of it and just breathes in the aroma for a few moments before taking a sip. It's perfect...just like everything else that Alfred makes. "You're the best."

Alfred doesn't say anything before placing a small plate of shortbread cookies in front of him. Roy knows that this is the carrot before the stick treatment. There's going to be a lecture, and quite frankly, he's pretty sure that he deserves whatever Alfred is about to say. He sighs and braces himself for the impact of a proper English gentleman's tongue lashing, which would be why his eyes widen in surprise when the man just places a hand on his shoulder. "You're doing the best that you can in this peculiar and trying situation, sir."

Roy smiles slightly to himself. He doesn't really believe it's true, but hearing someone say so is still nice. "Thanks, but I'm pretty sure that you're the only one who thinks so. Tim and I are probably being ridiculous, Dick's most likely right, and for the first time in my entire life, I actually wish Batman was around." Roy resists the urge to hide his face in his hands, but doesn't stop himself from slouching further into his seat. "I can't help but think that I should have just handed her over to Dick and left. If Bruce would have been here, it wouldn't have even been up for debate, and well...then everything would have been better, right?"

Alfred raises an eyebrow, which clearly implies, 'how could you think that way?'. It's an expression, which only Alfred can truly use to make a grown man reconsider the entire way that he thinks. "Master Bruce has his convictions on how certain matters should be dealt with. That, however, doesn't always mean that he's right, and I believe that this is one particular instance in which his judgment may not have been the best to follow. However, if you really are in anticipation of Master Bruce's return, you'll be happy to know that he should be arriving home tomorrow or the day after."

Roy visibly pales with that knowledge. "Tomorrow? So soon? Doesn't he still have a bunch of paperwork he has to do after an off-world mission or something?"

Alfred nods, but doesn't say anything as he turns back to his chores. Roy knows that he sounds frantic, but there's nothing that he can do about it. He wasn't all that concerned when Tim left, because he knew that, given enough time, they'd be able find him and bring him home. Roy knew it might take some effort-well, a lot of effort-but it wasn't unreasonable of him to think that they would have the time that they needed. At least, it wasn't until Alfred's revelation that Bruce would be back sooner rather than later. Roy knew that wanting Batman around again was going to be a short-lived desire...he just didn't realize how short. He can't imagine what Bruce will do if he comes back only to find one of his sons ran away...not to mention the whole Lian/Purple Arrow situation.

Roy's first thought is to run back down to the cave, and yell at Dick to hurry up and use all of his Bat training to bring their little runaway bird home, but before he gets a chance, Alfred turns to him. "Master Roy, I would appreciate it if you would tell the young lady that it's time for her to eat. You should find her in the room that she's staying in. I believe she said something about looking through her new wardrobe."

Roy wants to protest, but he knows better than to argue with Alfred. Besides, he left Dick down in the cave by himself for a reason. The only time Dick really thinks is after a loud verbal altercation followed by time by himself, and Roy won't interrupt that just because he's having another minor meltdown. Sure, Bruce is on his way home, and they have no idea where Tim is, and they didn't bother to try to contact him when a Lian Harper from another Earth showed up, but that doesn't mean that he has any reason to go berserk.

By the time he makes it to Lian's room, Roy manages to calm himself enough that, when he walks inside, his smile is only slightly off. He's not sure how it comes across, but Lian doesn't look as though she wants to bolt out of the room, so he figures it's not that bad. He's not really sure how he manages it. Roy is pleased when he makes it through the conversation. He's not really in the mood to eat, but he doesn't want Lian to worry about this Batman, nor does he really want to consider how Damian is going to react to Lian, but Roy figures that they'll cross that bridge when they get to it. Right now, he's focusing all of his energy on trying to eat at a normal pace, despite the fact that he wants nothing more than to rush down to the cave and see if Dick has even started looking for Tim, which would be why he's caught off-guard when Lian asks if Tim is coming back.

Roy doesn't honestly want to think about the consequences if they can't convince him to come home. All he can hope for is that Tim's abnormally fast learning curve applies to the amount of time it takes him to calm down after a fight as well. He's so busy trying to find the best way to break the news to Dick that Bruce is on his way home, and their time scale just got blown up, to the point that he honestly doesn't notice it, at first, when she calls him dad. Roy is too tired and emotionally exhausted to even pretend to be upset over it, so he just waits a few moments before pressing on in the conversation.

He can tell that she's upset and hurting, though, especially when she excuses herself. Unfortunately, Roy is only capable of dealing with one crisis at a time, so instead of chasing after her and reassuring her that it's fine, Roy runs down to the cave to find Dick hovering over the computer. "Did you know where he's heading?" Roy doesn't bother with greetings. After all, it's not as though they have the time for them.

Dick glances over his shoulder and nods. "If he didn't hack into the systems and plant fake tracers, then he should be fairly easy to find. Unless of course, he purposefully left the tracers on to throw us off, but even if that's the case it should only take a couple of days...maybe a week tops to find him. Of course, that's assuming that he hasn't gone completely underground, but he'd have to be pretty angry to take it that far."

Roy holds his head in his hands. He doesn't know why nothing ever works out for him, but it's starting to get old, and the tension headache he's starting to get isn't helping matters. "Dick, I hate to break this to you, but we don't have a couple of days...let alone a week."

Dick stops what he's doing and turns completely around at that. "What? Why? What did I miss?"

Roy sighs as he rubs his temples. "Bruce is on his way home. He should be here tomorrow or the day after. And how do you think he's going to react if he gets here only to discover you drove Tim away?"

Dick glares at that. "I didn't mean to..."

Roy slices his hand through the air to stop him. "Look, it doesn't matter. We have to find him and fast, and we both know convincing him to come back so soon isn't going to be easy. So give me a set of tracers to follow, and let's get out of here."

Dick hands him a locator, and points to a portion of the map. "You take this section. It's the most likely place to find him out of uniform. I'll meet up with you later. There's something I need to do first."

Roy raises an eyebrow as he tucks away the locator. "Oh really, and what's that?"

Dick gives him a sheepish smile as he heads toward the stairs. "I've gotta talk to Lian."

"Okay, fine, but don't tell her about Bruce or why we have to find Tim sooner rather than later. I don't want her worrying about the big bad bat and his angry brat of a sidekick."

Dick looks as though he wants to protest, or defend Damian, or do something equally unproductive right now, but Roy just glares at him, and instead he leaves with a wave. Roy rolls his eyes. He doesn't think that Dick is ever going to grow up. Hell, he's not even sure that it's something Dick is capable of. He borrows another one of Dick's sweet, and yet nondescript bikes and heads out of the cave. He doesn't understand why the Bats feel it's necessary to use so many tracking devices for one of their own, but he figures it doesn't really matter. He has a job to do-which is almost a relief. For the first time in days, the only real threat is the threat of the Bat. It's a feeling Roy is well acquainted with, and one he knows how to deal with well, so he allows himself to smile as he races through traffic towards his first point of interest.

He tries to contact Tim twice on his way to the closest tracer's signal, but he doesn't get an answer either time. Roy isn't surprised by that fact, nor is he concerned when the tracer turns out to be a dummy. In fact, Roy would actually be disappointed if Tim was that easy to find, even with the impending doom of Batman coming home early. It would mean that the kid isn't even trying, which, for a Bat, is never a good sign. Roy shakes his head as he gets back on the bike, but before he can start it up again, there's a scream and a guy running past him, down an alley, holding a woman's purse. Roy isn't even slightly startled. This is Gotham, after all, and it never matters that it's broad daylight here.

He hops off the bike and follows the guy down the alley. Roy's not in his Red Arrow uniform, but it's not a big deal, or at least that's what he tells himself. The guy must think that he's safe, because halfway through the alley, he stops running, and slows down to a nice calm pace that Roy can easily match. He gets within two feet of the guy, and he's just about to make his move when the guy spins around with a gun in his hand. Roy throws up his hands (the robotic one shines oddly in the daylight), and says, "Easy, fella," in a placid tone that he would normally use with a small child...all the while berating himself for not noticing the gun earlier. Roy can't help but think that Dick would have seen it immediately.

The guy hesitates and looks torn between wanting to shoot him and wanting to pistol whip him, which is all the time that Roy needs to knock the gun clear and pin the guy against the brick wall of one of the buildings lining the alley. "Taking things that don't belong to you and pointing guns at people. You're just making all kinds of wrong choices today." The guy doesn't get a chance to respond before Roy headbutts him, knees him in the gut, and leaves him unconscious at the mouth of the alley.

Roy returns the purse the guy snatched to it's owner, and then gets back on his borrowed bike. He's got a lot more tracers to track down, and he figures that if every one of them is going to yield this much excitement, then it should be a fun day. The next three tracers he finds are complete busts, and worse there isn't even anything for him to do in the surrounding areas. Roy sighs to himself as he continues searching for Tim.

Two hours after he's left the cave, Roy gets a call from Dick, and it's just more bad news. Purple Arrow and Nightwing haven't found anything, either. Although, Roy would love to see the look on the Gothamites' faces who are wondering what the hell is going on that Nightwing is out in the daylight-with a partner, no less. He honestly finds it funny that they're going to all of this trouble just because Batman is on his way home, but then again they've done crazier things to avoid far less scary people. Roy stops at his next location, and is stunned for a moment when he sees Tim's bike. He knows it doesn't really mean anything. Tim could have easily ditched his bike here, but it at least means that, at some point today, Tim was in the vicinity, which is something. He doesn't call Dick right away, though. After all, if Tim is still angry, which he most likely is, calling Dick will only make convincing Tim to come back harder.

Roy gets off his own bike, and starts systematically looking for Tim. He starts with the most obvious places Tim would go in the area, and works from there. He's still a little dazed when he finds Tim in the seventh book store he checks out, six blocks away from where he found Tim's bike. "Hey, kid. We gotta talk." Tim looks around as though he expects someone else to be with Roy, and it makes Roy smile a little, because he was right not to call Dick. "He's not here. You don't have to worry about having a big public argument."

Tim nods once at him and goes back to reading the jacket of the book that he's holding. "So, what are you doing here, then?"

Roy heaves a large sigh as he runs his hand through his hair. He was hoping that Tim wouldn't want to just jump right into this, because Roy still hasn't figured out how to phrase everything that he wants to say. But, Roy knows that it's foolish to expect any less from Tim. "Look, I know you're still mad, and you have valid reasons for leaving, but Bruce is on his way home, and I think it'd be easier to explain the whole Lian situation if we didn't also have to explain that you left and why."

Tim glares at him. "So, I get to go back and deal with Dick, Damian, and Bruce. This is great."

Roy smirks a little in the hopes of lightening the mood. "Hey, I'm sure you and Lian can gang up on the kid. It'd be nice to see what kind of evil pranks she's learned from her Tim."

Tim smiles slightly at that. "It is in her best interest to learn how to deal with a monster like Damian now while she's still able to play innocent."

Roy grins brightly at that. "And we all know that there are few people as devious as you when it comes to pranking evil little demon children."

Tim smirks as he wanders toward the checkout. "Fine, after all, Purple Arrow does have a lot to learn. Although, I'm leaving it to you or Dick to tell Bruce about her."

Roy nods. He knew that was coming. "We'll leave it up to Dick. I think a nice chat with Bruce might remind him of why he doesn't want to turn into big, dark, and brooding."

Tim laughs. "You think?"

Roy didn't expect it to be so easy to get Tim to come back with him, but as the two of them walk back towards their bikes, Roy is damn grateful that it didn't take more effort. He's not looking forward to Bruce's and, more importantly, Damian's return. There's no telling what kind of fights lie ahead for all of them, and quite frankly Roy doesn't trust Lian to not just maim the little assassin-trained brat when he gets out of hand. He's honestly starting to wonder if it might just be better to take her to the Watchtower or something. After all, no one deserves to have Damian inflicted upon them.

On their way back to the cave, Roy contacts Dick to let him know that he found Tim. Tim doesn't seem thrilled with the prospect of seeing Dick again so soon after their last fight, but he's already doing that cold politeness thing that he does when he doesn't want to upset anyone. Roy thinks that he should probably do something about that, but he doesn't have a clue as to what. Besides, he's pretty Tim and Lian can bond over how Dick never stops talking, because if there's one thing Roy knows for sure, it's that Dick probably spent the entire time they were searching for Tim talking to Lian-nonstop.

When they get there, Roy busies himself with taking care of Dick's bike. He's known for years that Dick takes few things as serious as his bikes. Tim does the same with his own. The two of them work in silence until they hear the sound of another bike roaring into the cave. Tim drops the rag he was using to clean his hands on the work bench behind him, and starts heading toward the stairs. The moment the bike stops, Purple Arrow takes off her helmet and shakes out her pony tail. She's smiling as wide as Roy has ever seen her. "Okay, train surfing here is a little different from back home, but that's because I don't usually have someone chatting in my ear nonstop the whole time."

Dick's smiling too, which Roy thinks is a good sign. "You get used to it, or so I'm told. Anyway, why don't you go do some cool down exercises, and then get cleaned up?"

She nods, and then runs off in the direction of the mats. Roy can't help but grin at how happy she seems yet, it's just making him more apprehensive about Bruce's and Damian's return. He knows that her happiness is most certainly going to be short-lived, and worse, he knows that there's nothing that he can do about it. Roy shakes his head, and he's just about to finish cleaning up Dick's bike when he spots Dick searching the cave. "So, where is he?"

If there was more time before the big bad bat came home, Roy would just shrug and tell Dick to leave it. As things are; however, he simply gestures toward the stairs. "He didn't seem like he wanted to talk to you."

Dick sighs to himself. "Yeah, well, I want to talk to him."

Roy wants to tell Dick not to. He wants to fight with him, and force him to let Tim be for a while. He wants to warn him that Dick will probably just make Tim run away again, but unfortunately, they don't have the luxury of time on their hands right now, and Roy knows Dick. If he doesn't do what he wants to now, then he'll just choose a far less opportune moment to have it out with Tim. Roy really doesn't want himself or Lian to be stuck in all Bat battle, so, instead of doing what he wants, he simply gestures for Dick to get going. "I'm sure that you'll find him in his room." Dick nods, and heads for the stairs, but is halted by Roy. "And Dick?"

Dick stops midway up the steps, and twists around to face him. "Yeah?"

"Good luck."

Dick flashes a smile at him as he races the rest of the way up the stairs. Roy can't imagine that his conversation with Tim is going to end well, but he guesses it's good to hold out hope. Roy sighs to himself as he heads over toward the mats where Lian is just finishing her cool down routine. "Hey, how about after you're done changing, I'll take you out to one of the best ice cream parlors in Gotham?"

She grins at him and nods her head. "That sounds great."

He smiles back, and gestures for her to go get changed. She practically skips toward the changing area, and that makes Roy's chest hurt. It's good to know that this Lian never lost the ability to just be a child sometimes, but it still makes him miss his own Lian more and more. He goes to sit down while he waits for Lian to come back.

Roy knows that he's being a coward, but he figures it's best to break the news of Batman's impending return over comfort food, and well...no one said that he or Lian had to be here for the fallout of whatever talk Dick and Tim are having, so when Lian is finally done changing, Roy feels absolutely no sorrow about taking the bike he just finished refueling and cleaning once again and racing out of the cave with Lian's arms wrapped around him tightly.

The End (for now)


	12. Chapter 12

She's dressed and ready to go in a matter of minutes, but it's clearly been too long for Dick's liking. When Lian emerges from the changing area, he's on the other side of the cave doing back flips. Lian can't stop the laugh that bubbles up on seeing the giant smile on his face while he's flipping. He lands perfectly and takes a little bow. "If you think that's something, wait til we hit the rooftops. Ready to go?"

Lian nods and gestures for him to lead the way. She still isn't sure how to react around Dick, which is why she has every intention of letting him do most of the talking, and-from everything that her Uncle Tim has said about the Dick Grayson on her world-that really shouldn't be a problem. "I'm ready whenever you are."

Dick smiles brightly at her as he cartwheels to his bike. "Well, come on, we've got a Timmy to find."

Lian laughs again as she jogs over to the bike. "Are you going to be like this the entire time that we're searching for him?"

Dick's grin suddenly turns into a mischievous smirk. "Worse. You just wait until I get into a joking mood."

Lian slides onto the back of the bike behind him. She doesn't know what to think. He went from suspicious to lighthearted so quickly and easily that she feels like she has whiplash, but that doesn't mean that she can't play along. After all, Lian is good at that-has to be good at that for so many reasons-and most of them don't have anything to do with her family back home. "Your tone says that this is something I should be wary of."

Dick chuckles lightly as he revs the engine. "Well, depending on who you talk to, most people would tell you that it probably is."

Her grip tightens around him as they race out of the cave. "Whatever you say."

It doesn't take long for Lian to come to the conclusion that Dick's driving would be terrifying if she wasn't so used to driving with people who like to push everything and everyone to the limit. Come to think of it, his driving would probably still be petrifying, even with those experiences, if she didn't do what she does at night. Something about getting shot at and going up against the clinically insane on a nightly basis just takes the terror out of driving down the middle of the street between two big rigs going at speed in the middle of the day on a heavily trafficked road.

Dick laughs the entire time as he weaves in and out of traffic, which just makes Lian smile and laugh too. She's wondering how odd this must be for the civilians on the road right now. After all, it's not every day that they get to see Nightwing out during daylight hours, and Lian almost doesn't want to know what they think of her. The first couple of times that she went out in her Purple Arrow costume back home she was called a great many things, but the one that annoyed her the most was when some thug had called her 'Mini Huntress.' She broke all of the fingers on the guy's hand that was wrapped around a meat hook, and she's never felt any remorse for it.

The thought makes her lick her teeth and want to hit something. It's been a long time since she's gone out and had someone not know her name. Lian doesn't look forward to the inane jokes that the lowlifes of Gotham come up with, but she has always enjoyed correcting them. Before she can get too deep into the her mental images of new and creative ways to recondition the scum of Gotham, Dick pulls into an empty alleyway and stashes the bike under some conveniently placed trash bags. At her raised eyebrow, Nightwing shrugs. "I don't normally do this during the day, but I do know that Mrs. Anders who lives on the second floor of this particular brownstone likes to just shove her trash bags out of her side window. No one really uses this alley for anything, thus why no one has said anything about that nasty little habit of hers."

Lian rolls her eyes behind the mask as she shakes her head. "Of course she does, because carrying the trash down a couple flights of stairs would just be too time consuming."

Dick dusts his hands off once he's done placing the final bag. "I don't know what her reasoning is, but it works out well for our purposes. So, ready to go?"

Lian nods and gestures for Dick to lead the way. "Where do we start?"

Dick gives her a very Nightwing grin, or at least she assumes it's a Nightwing grin, since she can't really imagine Dick Grayson giving this type of smile to anyone. "We start where all proper searches for a runaway bird start-on the rooftops, heading northeast; and then we'll hit the mid-afternoon southwest train, and the we can..." Dick pauses a moment in his explanation. "Wait, you have actually trained surfed before, right?"

Lian looks at him as though he's an idiot. "You're joking, right? Of course I've train surfed...blindfolded and everything."

Dick grins even brighter as he grabs his grappling gun, and gestures for her to follow him to the roof. "Oh, I'm liking your Timmy more and more. What other training techniques has he used with you?"

Lian lands on the roof just as silently as she always does, and brushes her ponytail off of her shoulder. "You know, the norm, I guess."

Dick pouts at her as they start moving across the rooftops. "Oh, come on, I know you were trained by a Tim, but that doesn't mean that you need to act like him. Talk, I know that you can. After all, I refuse to believe a daughter of any Roy Harper isn't just as chatty as he is."

Lian blushes brightly at the comment. It's not often that she's told to talk more. If anything her Grandpa Bruce, Aunt Barbara, and Uncle Tim would love it if she could stop cluttering the airways with useless banter while on patrol. Although, they have given up on trying to make her into the silent brooding type, for the most part. "The only thing I can think of from my training that made my Grandpa Bruce raise an eyebrow was when my Uncle Tim had me make and use a batarang slingshot."

Dick bursts out into a gale of chuckles at that. "Wait, what? Why did he have you do that?"

Lian can't help but grin at the memory as she leaps to another rooftop. "Well, it was pretty early on in my training, and I was having real problems throwing the batarangs without nicking myself, and after one particularly frustrating night I had complained that there had to be a better and more efficient way of deploying the damn things. So, Tim told me that he would think about it. The next night he came down to the cave with blueprints for a batarang slingshot. He told me that if I could build it and make it work, then he'd try to come up with something a little more compact for our belts, but I still had to learn to throw them correctly."

"So, did it work?" Nightwing looks as though he really is considering making his own batarang slingshot, and it makes Lian want to giggle.

"Yeah, it worked, but not well, and Tim did design something for our belts. It was the basic design of an air gun of sorts, but the amount of pressure he needed to release the batarangs was too great, and they ended up coming out at the speed of a bullet, which didn't really work well."

Nightwing hums to himself for a second before taking off in the direction of another rooftop. "Hmm, I wonder if this Tim could work on improving that design. It may not be practical, but having a batarang slingshot could prove to be fun."

Lian does giggle at that. "You are aware that the batarang slingshot came with rules. Although, Grandpa Bruce will never know that it was actually Tim who used it with the dog." At Dick's clearly shocked expression, Lian continues. "It wasn't anything bad. It's just that Tim was trying to get some work done and needed to distract the dog for awhile. Ace really did enjoy chasing and catching the batarangs."

Nightwing shakes his head at her. "No, no, not that. I'm just surprised that Bruce let you have a dog."

Lian barks out an indignant laugh at that. "Let me? What on earth are you talking about? Ace is Grandpa Bruce's dog. The mutt barely listens to anyone else. I mean, even Alfred had problems getting that dog to do anything. Grandpa Bruce got him after his 'accident.' Aunt Barbara told me that he needed something to fill his time, since he couldn't patrol anymore, and decided a dog was the right kind of needy. At least, that's how she put it. I, on the other hand, believe he was just lonely while Tim and I were on patrol and needed some company."

Dick nods and thinks about it for a moment. "I have absolutely no idea how this Bruce would deal with a dog."

Lian shrugs. "If he's anything like my Bruce, he'll act as though it's a great burden, but then treats it just like any other member of the family...except, you know, more love and attention."

Dick smiles wickedly as he stares down at her. "You're dangerous, you know that?

Lian shakes her head at him, because she doesn't know. "What do you mean?" She knows that she's dangerous in the traditional sense of the term. After all, she was raised by The Batman, but Lian gets the impression that isn't what Dick means.

"I mean, you now have me wanting to get Bruce a dog just to see his reaction. Heck, the look on Damian's face alone would be worth it."

Lian laughs slightly. She isn't really sure how a Bruce with so many family members could handle a dog. "Um, maybe you should wait until his house isn't so...um...busy." Lian still isn't sure about this Damian character that she keeps hearing about, but it sounds like he's more than one handful, and she knows from experience that a dog and a cave is one giant handful on their own.

Dick nods again, and gestures for them to continue. "Well, I guess we should get a move on. It doesn't look like we're going to find Tim around here."

Lian gives him a curt nod, and follows him to the next portion of their search grid. She's a little thrown by how much this Dick Grayson babbles. It's not as though she wasn't aware that her own Dick was a very talkative person, but this one never seems to need to take a breath. He doesn't stop even when he's tumbling in midair, twisting his body in impossible ways, and it just makes her grin widen, because she's never been around someone who talks this much and enjoys flying as much as he so obviously does. They land on a roof, scan the surrounding area, and then keep moving, and the whole time Dick is asking questions, making jokes, prompting for more information, and just generally never shutting up. Lian loves every second of it.

As it turns out, train surfing is a little different here. The basic principle is the same. She still has to brace herself and pay attention to where the curves are, but this particular train makes more stops than she's used to, and Dick still never pauses in his chatter. He prattles on about absolutely everything, and yet she can tell that he's putting most of his focus on her to make sure that she doesn't fall or miss when she's supposed to duck. He's good at warning her when there's going to be a stop ahead, and letting her know when she's going to have to brace for a curve, but he still just keeps rattling on about the uses of extra flips in combat situations.

Lian can't help but want to learn everything he could possibly have to teach her. She knows that her flexibility could use some work, and she also knows that there's no one better to help with that than Dick Grayson. She watches him twist and turn in midair, and knows that he could help make her better. Lian is starting to wonder if there isn't a single person on this earth who could make her better. The thought hurts so much-because she doesn't want to think of her family back home as being inferior-but she can't help it. She can't help but wonder if the people on her earth were a little more open and a lot more versatile, then maybe-just maybe-her father and the others would still be alive. Lian hates herself for thinking it, and wishes she could get the thought out of her head; but being here-being around all of these people-forces her to face the things that she's always secretly speculated.

She's pulled from her thoughts by a hand on her shoulder. She nearly overbalances because of it, but Lian hopes that she covers it well enough. If Dick's expression is anything to go by, then she probably failed miserably. "You okay?"

Lian sighs, mostly to herself. Clearly, she needs to work on paying more attention. After all, it's not as though she's completely unaccustomed to touch...even if she isn't completely used to the amount of physical contact Dick likes to shower upon people. Lian shakes her head and smiles again for him. "Of course, what's up?"

Dick is staring at her as though he's well acquainted with that kind of lie, and really doesn't like it. It takes her a moment to realize exactly why that is, but before she can do anything about it he's gesturing for her to follow him. "Our stop is coming up." He gives another hand gesture before leaping into the air, twisting and turning, and free falling for a few seconds, before pulling out his grapple gun.

Lian follows him, albeit in a less flamboyant fashion. She lands silently on the rooftop next to him. She's about to apologize for lying earlier, and reassure him that her minor daze wasn't about train surfing or even anything remotely problematic when they suddenly get the signal that Roy found Tim. Dick breathes an obvious sigh of relief before turning back towards her. "Well, I guess we can head back now that Tim has been found."

Lian bites her lip uncertainly. This has been fun, and she really doesn't want to return just so Dick and Tim can resume fighting, but she knows that she doesn't really have a say in the matter. After all, it's not as though it's the middle of the night and they're on patrol or anything. Truthfully, they probably shouldn't be out in costume at all, but Dick had insisted, and Lian feels far more comfortable running around as Purple Arrow than Lian Harper, at least in this world anyway.

They make their way back towards the bike that Dick stashed, and then start the adrenaline rush that is Dick's driving. If Dick is apprehensive about whatever might happen between him and Tim once they get back, he sure as heck doesn't show it. He's still laughing and smiling as brightly as before. He's even continued talking a mile a minute, and Lian isn't exactly sure how he manages that. Sure, she's the talkative one of her family-but that really isn't saying much, given who she lives with. She certainly isn't used to so much chatter, but she thinks it wouldn't be such a bad thing if she was.

She can't keep the grin off of her face, not even when they get to the cave and Tim is nowhere to be found. Lian is in such a good mood that she doesn't bother to put up a fight when Dick tells her to go do her cool down exercises, even though she knows that it's just a distraction technique. Roy's own smile does put her at ease, at least a little, so she doesn't really pay much attention to his conversation with Dick. Lian bends to stretch her legs, and, even if she wanted to hear what they're saying, she couldn't over the blood rushing in her ears. She loses herself for a few moments in the feel of the stretch before moving to focus on her arms.

She wonders what other stretches Dick uses, and how she could be more efficient. She wants to know if it's even possible for her to gain a greater range of motion. Lian sighs to herself. She has a million questions, and no way of expressing any of them without causing at least some concern. She knows that she has to find a way to make everyone...not just Dick...see that all she really wants is to be something more than what she is. Because what she is...who she is...isn't going to be enough to survive on her own back home. Lian understands that now...more than she ever has, and it scares her. She never wants to lose her Grandpa Bruce, Uncle Tim, or Aunt Barbara, but she knows now that if she did, she wouldn't last very long at all-and it doesn't really have anything to do with grief. Lian knows that she just isn't good enough...at least not yet.

Before Lian can really work out a plan of action, however, Roy startles her with an offer of ice cream. She's pretty sure that she recovers quickly enough that he doesn't notice exactly how out of it she was, but even so, ice cream is a much better way to spend the afternoon than finding out exactly what a Tim and Dick conversation sounds like. She wishes that the two of them can work out whatever is wrong between them, but she knows better than to hope for such. After all, they are both Bats, and everyone knows that there are few people who are as stubborn as Bats.

Lian changes quickly and follows Roy over to one of the less obvious vehicles in the other garage. He drives like a particularly worried father, which makes Lian want to both laugh and cry. She settles on laughter when Roy is passed by a man twice his age, who is clearly very displeased with Roy's speed. "You do intend to get to this ice cream parlor sometime this century, right Roy?"

Roy glances over at her, before cracking a small smile. "If you think that I'm risking ruining one of Bruce Wayne's cars, you've got another thing coming, kid."

Lian can't help it, she laughs harder at that. "Oh, okay, so you have no problem taking The Bats' bikes-with the high probability of destroying them-but taking a Bruce Wayne car is scary to you?"

"Of course. I mean, they expect those bikes to get destroyed. This baby?" Roy gestures to the car in general. "Not so much."

Lian shakes her head at that. "I think I'd like to meet a Bruce Wayne who cares more about his Bruce toys than his Batman ones."

Roy scoffs at that. "Whoa, I said it was expected that it would get destroyed. I didn't say that he didn't care about them. Trust me, every time a Bat toy gets destroyed by someone other than him, there's a long glare-filled lecture."

Lain giggles at that. "Sounds like my Grandpa Bruce. Even when it's explicitly stated that there was no other option-heck, even when he agrees that there was no other option-there's still a long lecture following any destruction of Bat tech."

They both laugh before falling into a comfortable silence. Lian notes everything that they pass along the way. She enjoys being able to spot the differences as well as the similarities between this Gotham and her own. When they get to the ice cream parlor, Roy orders for both of them. It makes Lian smile in an almost painful way when she sees that he orders the exact same thing that her father used to, but she's sure it hurts him just as much that she clearly loves the same thing his daughter used to eat. It's strange that, while their worlds are so different, the people in them are still so similar. It makes her miss her home in an entirely different way than normal.

Halfway through their ice cream, which Lian is pretty certain is, in fact, the best ice cream ever, Roy stares at her nervously...clearly wanting to tell her something unpleasant. The mere sight of Roy looking this anxious over ice cream makes Lian think that she's going to break out into a cold sweat at any moment. It's no different than when she was seven and her own father had sat her down in front a bowl of chocolate fudge swirl ice cream to tell her that she was never going to see her Aunt Dinah again.

Lian's about to just ask him what the bad news is, and demand to know what's going to happen to her if for some reason they can't return her to her own world when Roy lays his hand down on one of hers. "Stop looking like I'm going to tell you that I ran over your dog. It's not that bad."

Lian breathes out a sigh and tries to control her facial expression. She wasn't aware that her visage was that sour. "So, what's going on?"

Roy takes a deep breath before plowing on in the conversation. He stares at her as though this is one of the most difficult things that he's ever had to do, which confuses Lian, because surely burying his daughter beat whatever it is he has to tell her. "Bruce is on his way home. He'll be here tomorrow or the day after."

Lian can't help it, she throws her head back and laughs long and hard. She tries to keep it to herself, but she can't, and within a few moments, she gasping for breath. When she finally manages to compose herself, Roy is just staring at her blankly. "Sorry, it's just that I thought you were going to tell me that there was no way to send me home, or that my entire world was destroyed, or something equally terrible. I wasn't ready for the 'Batman is coming, so everyone run for your lives' line."

Roy shakes his head at her. "I don't think you appreciate exactly how bad this is."

Lian shrugs. She's willing to admit that she probably doesn't understand why this is such a dire thing, but then again, she's never seemed to have the same problem with Batman as her father had, so the fact that this Roy Harper seems to view this Bruce Wayne in the same light isn't exactly shocking. "So, what am I missing? Does this Bruce kick puppies and eat small children?"

"What? No." Roy stares at her for a moment before sighing to himself. "Look, Bruce isn't going to be happy with any of this. I mean, the other two haven't exactly followed protocol as far as you're concerned, and well...truthfully, I'm more worried about Damian and his reaction than Bruce's." 

Lian raises an eyebrow at that. Nothing is stranger to her than people being more worried about Robin than Batman, but, with everything that she's heard about this kid so far, it isn't that surprising. "Why is everyone so concerned with this Damian? Tell me about him."

Roy sighs heavily. "Damian is...special. He's...well, Dick likes to say that he's abrasive, and that's true, but it's so much more than that. Don't get me wrong, I would rather cuddle a giant Brillo pad than get anywhere near that kid, but there's really no way to accurately describe Damian. The kid is...defensive...really defensive, and he's very protective of his place beside Bruce. He's also grown quite a bit since he first showed up, but...well, he's still kind of unpredictable."

Lian nods once, as she continues to eat her now mostly melted ice cream. "He sounds like someone I should steer clear of."

Roy scoffs at that as he scoops a large amount of his own ice cream into his mouth. "You and Tim both." 

Lian's brows furrow at that. If she understands this family's dynamics, then Tim and Damian are some definition of brothers, so the fact that they don't even pretend to get along like Tim and Dick is perplexing to her. "What's Damian's problem with Tim?"

Roy smiles at her slightly. "Ah, that's the big question. It's been some time since Damian took on the role as Robin. Everyone thought that he would eventually find his own place within the family, and the fighting between him and Tim would die down, but that never really seemed to happen. Damian seems to just hate Tim on a primal level. He gets along with Dick, though, so that's something."

"So, how do Tim and Damian interact when they are both home?" Lian can't imagine that Bruce would allow the two to fight under his roof...at least, not the way Roy is implying they argue.

Roy shrugs slightly as he moves to throw away the remnants of his ice cream. "I don't know, but from what Dick's said, they pretty much just ignore each other. Tim spends most of his time in his room or in the cave or library when he knows that Damian is somewhere else."

"That's weird. I don't know what it's like to live with someone I basically hate." And she can't imagine it, either. She's never been around someone she didn't at least like a little...not for an extended period of time anyway. Lian has no idea how any of them could deal with such animosity, and she certainly doesn't envy any of them for it.

Roy just shrugs again. "I don't know, but they make it work."

Lian shakes her head. "They may deal with it, but I doubt any of them would say that it actually works. I mean, that can't be good for any of them, right?"

Roy leans over and ruffles her hair. "Look, I know what you're thinking, and it's sweet-really, but you can't fix everything, and some things aren't your job to fix. The Batboys are always going to be at least a little messed up. There's nothing anyone-not even Arrows-can do about that, but it's nice that you want to try."

Lian doesn't know what to say to that, because she hadn't honestly been thinking about fixing it. Sure, she thinks it's wrong that they all live together and none of them really get along, but that doesn't mean that Lian thinks that she's capable of repairing any of it. Although, she can certainly see herself trying. After all, she knows exactly what it's like to live with people who have far too many regrets, and she doesn't want to see anyone here have to live like that...not if it can be stopped.

She shakes her head, and combs her fingers through her hair. "Maybe I can't fix it, but is that really a reason not to try?"

Roy smiles at her as though he's in pain. "No, kiddo, of course not, just don't be disappointed if you don't succeed."

Lian tries to reassure him with her own smile. She's not sure if it works or not. "Of course not. I'll just try again, because that's what Harpers do, right?"

She's pretty sure that Roy has tears in his eyes when he nods and says, "Damn right. Now let's get back before the other two kill each other."

Lian follows him back to the car with tears in her own eyes, but she won't cry. All in all, it's been a good day. She had fun swinging between rooftops with Dick, and eating ice cream with Roy, and she's not going to ruin it with thoughts of how much she wishes her own dad were here right now.

The End (for now)


	13. Chapter 13

Roy isn't sure how Bruce is going to feel about him taking this particular car. He doesn't have any delusions that Bruce won't find out, but, after everything else that he's done on this trip to Gotham, Roy figures that whatever Bruce's reaction is it can't be that bad. He still doesn't feel like taking any chances with this extremely expensive property of the Bat, however, and given the way that his week/life has been going lately, Roy thinks that the speed that he's going is completely justified-even when an enraged older gentleman passes him and the teenager beside him starts mocking him. He doesn't mind, though. After all, it's a nice change from all of the drama that's been going on lately. That thought makes his stomach drop slightly, because he still has to break it to this girl that Batman and his psychopath of a sidekick are on their way home. Still, Roy figures he can put on a good show for her.

He enjoys the laid back drive, in spite of the impending doom, and when they finally get to the ice cream parlor, Roy's not the least bit surprised to find that she loves the exact same combination that his little girl did. It stings in a way that he's almost getting used to, even though it doesn't feel as though he's had enough time to become acquainted with this particular pain. However, he is slightly taken aback with how well she's taking the news of Bruce's and Damian's return. He's fairly certain that that's only because she's never met the demon spawn. Sure, the kid isn't as bad as when he first arrived, but that just means that he keeps his homicidal tendencies directed solely at Tim.

After their ice cream, Roy takes them back to the manor. He pulls into the garage, and braces himself for whatever fall out there might be to Dick's conversation with Tim. The truth is, he's had a pretty good day, all things considered, and he really wants to avoid going further into the manor. He's so reluctant to have the relative peace broken that he almost misses the slight tension running through Lian's entire body. He glances down at her, and has to almost physically stop himself from putting his hand on her shoulder. "What's up?"

She bites her lip uncertainly before heaving a small sigh. "I...um...just wanted to say thanks for the ice cream, even though you really didn't need to soften me up for the 'Batman's coming home talk'."

Roy grins brightly at her as he shakes his head. "Yeah, sorry about that, but it wasn't just that. I didn't think either one of us wanted to be here for Dick's talk with Tim. Besides, you had fun, and that's all that counts."

Lian stares at him with a raised eyebrow. "Speaking of which, what's the likelihood that they ended up killing each other?"

Roy chuckles lightly at that, because that exact thought has been running through his mind every second since they left. "Well, I'm pretty sure Alfred wouldn't let them. I mean, you can't really blame the guy for not wanting to clean up that mess, but I guess the only real way of knowing for sure is to go find out."

Roy isn't too enthusiastic about that prospect, and, from the looks of it, neither is she, but it's not as though the two of them can just continue standing in the middle of the garage. After all, Roy knows that eventually Alfred will find a reason to drag them out of here, and that's never as pleasant as it sounds. He takes a moment to prepare himself, and then heads towards the door. Lian is following behind him at a fair distance, as though she's covering his back and they're walking into something far worse than just the manor. Roy would laugh if it didn't feel so much like he was entering the unknown. They both tread lightly and peer around every corner as though they are just waiting for something or someone to jump out at them at any moment. The hallway is clear, and there doesn't seem to be any mysteriously demolished priceless Wayne family heirlooms littering their path, so Roy thinks that it's safe.

However, as the two of them make their way up the stairs, it's clear that the second floor didn't fair as well as the first. There's a throwing knife sticking out of the wall by Tim's bedroom door, and the door itself looks as though it was used as a shield for a flash grenade. Roy edges his way into the room, only to find it in complete shambles. Tim's books are all over the floor, and the set of shelves that they clearly came from is lying in pieces. His desk is in complete disarray, and what was once a laptop is lying scattered around the room. The giant window looks as though something crashed through it, and there's glass littering the entire floor. Roy knows that, no matter what their fight was about, there's no way that this carnage was caused by Dick and Tim, at least not against each other.

He leaves the room, grabs the throwing knife out of the wall, and gestures for Lian to silently follow him. She looks just as concerned as he feels, and now Roy is really wishing that he had come in through the cave. At least then they would both be armed to the teeth. As it is, Roy just hopes that they find Dick, Tim, and Alfred in one piece and that the cave hasn't been compromised. They silently move down the hall, checking rooms as they pass, all in a similar state to Tim's. When Roy reaches Dick's room, the door is shut, and there's definitely blood on the doorjamb. He motions for Lian to stay where she is as he tries the doorknob. It's locked, which is just his luck. With a shaking hand, Roy reaches for the set of lock-picks that he always keeps on him. It takes him longer than he'd ever care to admit to pick the lock, but he doesn't hesitate to open the door.

Roy doesn't even get a chance to tell Lian to run for it before he's hit with a solid weight that knocks the wind out of him. He sprawled out on the floor, and there's something being pressed against his throat, but before Roy can really start panicking he hears Lian scream. "NO! Wait, stop, it's us!"

Suddenly, he's being pulled off of the floor and into a standing position. It's then that he realizes that the weight that hit him was Dick, and that the object that was being pressed to his throat was an escrima stick. Roy clasps Dick on the shoulder and lets out a sigh of relief. It's then that he notices the blood running down Dick's arm. "What happened? Where's Tim? Where's Alfred?"

Dick shakes his head and motions for them both to get into the room, and then he practically drags them both through the threshold before shutting the door and barricading it. Roy glances around the room, and immediately spots Alfred sitting on Dick's bed, tending to a wound on Tim's side. He can't tell how bad it is from where he's standing, but Alfred doesn't seem too concerned about it, so Roy guesses that it's not that bad. "I repeat what happened?"

Dick's still barricading the door, when he tosses a, "We were attacked." over his shoulder.

Roy huffs out a breath as he folds his arms over his chest. He swears that sometimes dealing with the Bats is like dealing with children, except getting information out of them is infinitely more difficult. "Yeah, I kinda got that, Dickie-bird. Anything else you want to fill me in on?"

Dick stands and backs away from the door. He promptly falls into a chair beside the bed. "It was Harley...at least I think it was Harley. She sure looked different, and kept spouting something about seeing ghosts. I didn't see Joker anywhere, but she wasn't alone. There were some damn good fighters with her, and, quite frankly, I didn't think that she could be quite so..." Dick glances down at the sluggishly bleeding wound on his arm. "vicious."

Roy's eyes widen at Dick's explanation. He's not actually sure what he was expecting, but it sure as hell wasn't this. "Wait, let me get this straight. You got your ass handed to you by Harley...as in Harley Quinn?"

Dick glares at him, before glancing over to make sure that Tim is okay. "No, we just decided to hole up in my old bedroom for fun."

This makes absolutely no sense to Roy. There's no reason for this. Harley rarely ever attacks on her own, that he knows of, anyway. Not to mention, attacking Wayne Manor. It just doesn't match what he knows of her normal behavior...not even a little bit. "Did she say what she wanted? I mean, isn't there usually some giant scheme?"

Dick shakes his head, and looks just as lost as Roy feels. "I don't know. One minute Tim and I were talking in his room. The next thing we knew there was a bright green flash of light, and a bunch of red and blue checkered-clad women were crashing through the window. For a moment they looked just as confused as we were, and then all hell broke loose. I'm telling you, I've never seen anything like it before...at least not from Joker and Harley. We're talking Ra's level assassin training here, and I don't even know how many of them there are."

"Wait, red and blue checkered-clad women?" Lian looks extremely worried and pale.

"Yeah, why?" Dick doesn't seem to like that expression anymore than Roy does.

Lian suddenly begins wringing her hands together, and Roy thinks that she's about two seconds away from clawing at herself. He's honestly starting to panic. "Harley-the Harley from my world-always keeps a group of red and blue checkered-clad women with her. She calls them her Checkered Dolls. No one knows where she found them or who they are, but they're fiercely loyal to her, and only care about one thing."

Dick raises an eyebrow at her, clearly not liking the implications of what Lian is telling them. "And what's that?"

Lian shuts her eyes tightly and takes a deep breath before answering. Roy's sure that whatever her answer is, he's not going to like it. "Causing pain...they serve no other purpose but to play with Harley's victims. Some people refer to them as Harley's henchwomen, but if you ask me, it's a far too innocent term for them."

Roy glances around the room, and it's clear that everyone is just as unnerved by that as he is, which, while reassuring, isn't very helpful. Tim sighs as he pulls down his shirt, now that Alfred has finished stitching him up. "What else do we need to know about these women?"

Lian shrugs. "We don't know much about them. I mean, other than the fact that they're all really well trained in hand-to-hand combat, as well as with an array of weapons. They seem to be just as agile as Harley Quinn and just as dangerous. We don't even know how many Checkered Dolls she's collected over the years, but she never seems to go anywhere without at least a handful of them present."

"Yeah, we noticed." Dick grinds his teeth as he takes Tim's seat on the bed, and Alfred begins cleaning his wound.

Roy wants so badly to just bang his head against a wall. They really aren't prepared for this...not even a little bit. Dick has his escrima sticks, but not much else in the way of weaponry, and if Tim has any weapons on him, Roy certainly hasn't seen them yet. Roy still only has the throwing knife he picked up earlier, and Lian doesn't have a single thing on her that could be used in a fight. Roy feels certain that Alfred doesn't have a soup ladle or anything hiding on his personage, and from what he's hearing, they are probably out numbered and definitely severely out-skilled. "Okay, so where are they now?"

Tim shrugs, and suddenly looks very exhausted. "I don't know. I lured them away from this section of the manor and set off a diversion in the east wing before doubling back here, but I'm sure that it's only a matter of time before they figure out that little trap. We didn't want to risk compromising the cave, thus why you found us here."

Roy nods once at that little piece of information. It's good to know that they've bought themselves this time, at least. "Well, we entered from the garage, and clearly didn't run into any trouble on our way up here, so that's something. I think our best option now is try to make our way to the cave."

Tim and Dick both seem equally displeased with that plan of action. The two of them have one of their silent conversations that involve a lot of eyebrow raises and a few hard glares. After a few minutes of this, Dick turns his attention to Roy and shakes his head. "I really don't think that's the best idea. If they get into the cave, there's no telling what they could do."

Roy rolls his eyes at them. He can't honestly believe that he has to have this fight with them, but he guesses he shouldn't be surprised. They are Bats, after all. "We're probably out numbered. We don't have much in the way of weapons, and, from the sounds of it, these aren't the run-of-the-mill crazies we're dealing with here. I, for one, would feel better about taking on the nasty highly-trained insane women from another world with some damn Kevlar between me and them...hell, some weapons probably wouldn't be remiss, either."

Dick looks as though he's about to argue, but Tim puts his hand on Dick's shoulder, and that alone seems to quiet him. "Roy's right. Our best bet of containing this situation, and, more importantly, surviving it, is to get down to the cave."

Roy scoffs at that. "Best bet? Hell, kid, it's our only bet."

Tim glares, most likely at the kid comment, but doesn't argue. "As soon as Alfred is done patching Dick up, we'll unbarricade the door. Roy, you and Dick will take the front. Lian, you're with me, bringing up the rear. Alfred stays in between us at all times." Tim turns to face Lian. "I assume you've worked with staffs before, right?" At her nod, Tim continues. "Then you'll take this. Don't let anyone get between you and Alfred." He tosses her his collapsible Bo staff, and then moves towards the door.

Lian catches the staff easily, and then extends it to it's full length. "But what will you be using?"

"I think I can help with that." Dick gestures to the bottom drawer of his desk. "There's a false bottom."

Tim walks over to the indicated drawer, and removes the bottom. He smirks slightly before pulling out an extra pair of escrima sticks and a set of throwing knives. He hands the knives to Roy-for which Roy is eternally grateful-and then turns back to Dick. "You can never be too paranoid, huh?"

Dick grins in return. "Rule number one."

Roy tilts his head to the side slightly before grinning mischievously. "Funny, I thought rule number one was no communication with your allies...ever." It's nice to see these two interacting on more than just a professional level, and Roy can't help but mock them a little.

Dick rolls his eyes at him, but there's still a smile plastered on his face. "That's lesson five."

Roy laughs lightly at the joke, but the laughter is short lived. Alfred finishes with the few stitches to Dick's arm, and then they all move to unblock the door. They fall into their aforementioned positions, and prepare themselves for the worst as Roy reaches for the doorknob. Dick exits the room first, and then motions for Roy to follow. They both have their weapons in hand as they inch further into the corridor. Alfred follows, with Tim right at his back. Lian is the last to leave the room, and then the four of them form a barrier around Alfred as they make their way down the hallway and to the stairs.

There seems to be no sign of Harley or her Checkered Dolls, but Roy knows better than to breathe a sigh of relief just yet. After all, they still have a long way to go before they reach the relative safety of the cave. They're halfway down the stairs when two of Harley's Checkered Dolls attack from behind. They all turn to take on the new threat, but Tim breaks away from the group to fight them on the upstairs landing. Roy watches as he flips over one, and kicks out at the other. He's using the escrima sticks to block blows from both of the Dolls, but that doesn't stop one of the girls from clipping him in his already wounded side. Tim lets out a hiss of pain as he dodges another strike, and moves to sweep the legs out from under the other one.

Roy sees Lian make a move to go help him, but they have to keep moving. "He'll be fine. Stay close."

He can hear grunts of pain, and the distinct sounds of escrima sticks impacting against flesh, but Roy knows better than to focus on the fight at his back, especially when the four of them reach the downstairs landing and three Checkered Dolls appear in front of them seemingly out of nowhere. Roy immediately engages with the one directly in front of him while Dick takes on the other two. "Stay close to Alfred." Roy calls back to Lian as he blocks a blow with one of his knives. He ducks under a particularly vicious punch to his face, and then knocks a blade away with his robotic arm. It's times like this that he almost doesn't mind the metal limb, but he doesn't get much time to think about that, because out of the corner of his eye he catches Dick jumping up onto the shoulders of one of his opponents, using her as a spring board to launch himself at the other, thus sending the women careening towards Roy with twin flailing swords.

Roy jumps out of the way, and back onto the steps, and that's when he notices that both Lian and Alfred are suddenly missing. He can feel panic welling up inside of his chest-and if he wasn't in the middle of trying to fend off two psychotic females, he'd be searching frantically for them. As it is, however, his quickly overwhelming hysteria has to take a backseat to his need to survive. He takes a heavy solid boot to the chest, and lands with the hard edge of a stair digging into his back, but Roy doesn't have time to register the discomfort before he's rolling to the side and flipping over the banister.

He almost feels as though he should mourn the undoubtedly expensive wood of the banister that now has a sword sticking out of it, but Roy doesn't get a chance before he's back flipping out of the way of a sister sword that is now embedded into the floor where he was standing. He takes a second to reorient himself after that near miss, and comes face to face with a boot that sends him to the ground once again. Roy tries to scramble to his feet, but before he can, there's a very deadly looking Checkered Doll standing over him with a blade in his face. She pulls back her arm to strike, but just when her hand is coming down she's hit from behind, and knocked to the ground. Roy quickly gets to his feet, and turns to find Alfred holding a shotgun, which he clearly just used the butt of to save Roy. "Have I mentioned lately that I love you?"

Alfred, looking as prim and proper as always, gives a very slight nod. "I believe you have, Master Roy. Now, might I suggest that we focus on the task at hand?"

Roy shakes his head as he watches Alfred strike out with the butt of his gun once again, this time catching one of the ladies in the ribs before Lian appears beside her and sweeps the Doll's legs out from underneath her with the Bo staff. Roy doesn't hesitate to leap back into the fray, with Lian at his side. They make their way over to where Dick and Tim are fighting back to back with a small group surrounding them. Roy throws one of his knives to get some of the attention away from the other two, and then it's just him and Lian working side by side.

He'd love to just take a moment and enjoy this, but Lian wasn't lying when she said that these women were highly trained. It takes all of his effort and concentration just to keep from being sliced to pieces. They've been fighting all over the the upper and lower floors, and yet they still haven't seen a glimpse of Harley. However, Roy doesn't really have time to worry about that either, because right when he dodges a handful of throwing stars, and manages to throw the last of his knives, he sees one of the Checkered Dolls grab Lian by her hair and throw her into a wall. The woman is just about to follow that move with an elbow when Roy leaps over the Doll he's been dealing with-ignoring the feeling of blades slicing through his skin, and blood dripping down his legs and arm as he slams into the one attacking Lian.

Roy turns to make sure that Lian is okay, and then pulls her to her feet. His opponent is down, but not for long, and she takes advantage of Roy's moment of distraction. She rushes him, and knocks into some piece of priceless...something. Roy doesn't know what, and now's not the time to worry about it. He's back on his feet, and reaching for a most likely equally priceless vase when Lian swings the Bo staff into the back of the woman's knee, and proceeds to kick her in the face. Roy can't help the small amount of pride that runs through him at that move, and together they move back towards the other three.

They make their way over towards the study with Dick and Tim leading the pack. They're tired and really just want to get into the cave, which is why Dick is caught completely off-guard when he opens the door, and two more Checkered Dolls tumble out and barrel into Dick and Tim. Lian is sticking close to Alfred, which leaves Roy face to face with Harley Quinn. She's standing in front of the grandfather clock with her arms folded over her chest and her hip cocked out to the right. Roy now understands where the red and blue motif is coming from, but he still doesn't get the weird corset. Still, he guesses it could be worse...at least she's fully clothed.

She gives him a once over as she starts moving around Bruce's study, and Roy has no idea how to play this. He's never really dealt with his world's Harley...not to mention a world's where she's more dangerous than The Joker. "You know, I had plans for tonight. It was going to be great. I was going to crash Wayne's party, let my Checkered Dolls have some fun, and enjoy the screams. It was going to be glorious, and then something strange happened. My Dolls and I ended up here instead, and imagine my surprise when I found out that the Wayne brat is still alive here." She's holding up a small frame with a fairly recent photo of Dick and Bruce, and Roy's stomach abruptly drops, because she's looking just as crazed as Joker when he gets into a rant about Robin. "To think, my counterpart failed so spectacularly. I mean, really, one of my greatest achievements was putting that chatty bird and all of his little friends out of my misery. If only I could have made that idiot Joker follow. Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to show her how it's done."

Harley suddenly throws the picture at Roy as she's leaping across the desk. He ducks under the frame, and has to shield himself from the broken glass falling down on him as it smashes into the wall behind him. She's got a letter opener in her hand, and she's definitely aiming for his eyes, but Roy knows how to duck and roll...years of sparring with Dick has taught him one thing at least. The others are still outside of the door fighting off Harley's Checkered Dolls when Roy is sent flying into the old grandfather clock. It chimes and rattles as he clings to the sides of it, trying to get his barrings. He sees Harley attempting a flying kick towards him out of the reflection of the clock face, and spins away at the last second. Roy reminds himself to commend Alfred for his impeccable polishing job, because if it wasn't for that, the back of Roy's head would probably look something like the clock face, now that Harley's boot has gone through it.

Roy knows that he needs to get them out of this tiny room. He needs more space to work, and he'd love to see how the others are fairing outside. Plus, he's quickly running out of lose objects to use as projectile weapons, and he's really not looking forward to explaining to Bruce what exactly happened to that particular paper weight. Roy tries to dive towards the door, once again, but she's refusing to follow, and despite the cramped space, Harley is still just as agile as Lian described her, so he doesn't have much hope of just forcing her out. Roy is just about to dive under the upturned desk for cover, when Harley starts grinning manically and laughing. "Finally!" She breathes out as she pulls a knife from seemingly nowhere, and throws it with a force Roy honestly didn't expect her to have.

The knife goes sailing past him, and for a split second Roy thinks that he got lucky. That is until he hears a distinctive thud and a scream behind him, and Harley's insane grin suddenly kicks up a notch. Roy doesn't want to turn around...he doesn't want to see who's lying on the ground behind him, but he has to know. He tries to block out Harley's maniacal laughter as he turns to see Dick lying far too still with the dagger sticking out of his chest. "No, no, this can't be happening. Dick, no."

Tim slides under one of the Dolls, knocking her legs out from underneath her as he glides past, and is beside Dick in seconds. "Don't you dare die! We weren't done with our conversation. You can't die! Do you hear me?"

Tim glances over at Roy for some sort of reassurance that everything is going to be okay, when his eyes widen. "Roy, behind you!"

Roy spins out of the way of Harley swinging the grandfather clock's pendulum, and he's not exactly sure how she managed to dislodge it without him noticing. He figures it was probably while he was trying to convince himself that his best friend isn't dying. He keeps sliding, rolling, and dodging the wild swings, but Roy is truly getting sick of being on the defensive. He moves out of the way of another strike, and then throws the nearest object, hitting her in the face with it. He nearly laughs or cries...Roy's not sure which, when it turns out to be the Father's Day present he helped Dick pick out last year.

He rushes her, and bashes her into the nearest wall. He's about to follow it up with a punch from his robotic arm when Harley slams both of her feet into Roy's chest, and then dives on top of him. She's got both of her hands wrapped around his throat, and she's still grinning like the maniac that she is...especially with the blood coating her teeth. "I'm going to enjoy every second of this."

Roy doesn't get a chance to throw her off, because the next thing he knows, there's the sound of two bodies colliding, and Lian is kicking Harley as hard and as fast as she can over and over again. "You leave him alone. You vile, evil, depraved..." The insults continue, but Roy doesn't hear them. The sound is drowned out by the vision of Harley reaching for a canister that's attached to her belt. He doesn't have a single clue as to what could be in that canister, but he knows whatever it is, it can't be good. Roy scrambles to his feet, and grabs Lian around the middle, hauling her up into his arms. He practically dives out of the door, slamming it shut behind them. There's a loud whistle, and suddenly every single last one of the Checkered Dolls clambers to get out of the manor. Roy is honestly expecting some kind of explosion, which would be why he's lying on top of Lian, protecting her. But the explosion never comes. He's just about to move off of her when suddenly there's a flash and a bang and the sound of glass shattering.

They both stay completely still for a long moment, before finally Roy lifts his head to see Tim practically sprawled over both Alfred and Dick. Tim lifts his head as well, and glances around the room. He puts a hand on Alfred's shoulder, and Alfred nods. "I will take care of Master Dick, go."

Roy and Tim slowly edge their way back over towards the study, and Roy stands back as Tim kicks in the door. They both peer inside to see a cloud of smoke, the window shattered, and no sign of Harley or any of her Checkered Dolls anywhere. Roy glares at the destruction all around him before turning back to Tim. "Well, this just got personal."

The End (for now)


	14. Chapter 14

When they get back to the manor, Lian isn't sure what to expect. She hasn't ever really been around a Tim and Dick who fight as much as these two have been, so she hangs back and lets Roy lead the way. He seems to be on high alert, which has her checking every shadowed corner… for what? She doesn't know, but she continues moving silently, watching his back as they make their way up the stairs. She figures he's dealt with this enough to know what the protocol is, so Lian doesn't say anything when his shoulders tense right before he shakes his head at himself. When they get to what she knows is Tim's room - thanks to her preliminary search the first day that she arrived - Lian tries to hide her shock at the state of his room. She knows all about sibling rivalries and how nasty fights between siblings can get, thanks to both school and her night job, but she feels certain that this is a little more violent than any of those instances, even for a Bat.

The look of concern on Roy's face as he edges into the room and his quick surveillance has Lian feeling worried. She doesn't know what's going on, and she hates that. The way that he rips the knife out of the wall once he's back in the hallway is enough to tell her that this wasn't caused by Dick and Tim. It scares her to think of someone attacking Wayne Manor, because, other than the cave, the Manor is the safest place in her world. It's the one place where they can all be themselves and relax without having to think about all of the things they face on the streets.

They make their way down the hall silently, and the entire time, all Lian can think about is how unprepared she is for whatever they might be facing. She berates herself for not finding out more about this world's villains and how much each of them knows. It seems like something she should have been more focused on, and she knows that if Uncle Tim or Grandpa Bruce were here, she'd be getting so many lectures right now. When they get to Dick's room, Lian doesn't miss the blood on the doorjamb, which only makes her more nervous.

She watches silently as Roy fiddles with his lock-picks, knowing that she could get the door open faster, but once again Lian remains silent. Instead, she focuses her attention on making sure that she can defend Roy properly if anyone comes from either side of the hallway, which is why Lian is completely caught off guard when Roy is slammed into the floor by a dark haired blur. It's not until after there's an escrima stick pressed to Roy's throat and the violent movements have stopped that Lian can tell who their attacker is, and she can't help but let out a scream as she sees Dick's hand rearing back for a punch.

The discovery that they're facing a foe that Lian is well acquainted with doesn't give her any relief, especially since she knows all too well what Harley Quinn and her Checkered Dolls are capable of. However, having a weapon does make her feel a little less out maneuvered, even if she still doesn't like taking Tim's bo staff from him. She makes sure that she's the last one to leave the room, knowing that the others are fully capable of handling themselves should they be attacked, and then they all start making their way down the stairs, keeping Alfred in the middle.

Lian isn't surprised when two of Harley's Checkered Dolls leap out at them from the upstairs hallway, and she turns at the same time that Tim does to take them on. She's staying close to Alfred just like Tim told her to, blocking blows with the bo staff, and subtly pushing the group further down the stairs as Tim breaks away to deal with the Dolls on the upper landing. Lian knows that he's well trained, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to help him when he lets out a hiss of pain after being hit. However, Lian knows that Roy is right to tell her to keep formation.

She watches silently as Tim keeps the escrima sticks between him and the Dolls at all times, blocking and attacking whenever he can and ducking underneath blows when he can't. It isn't long before he has one of the Checkered Dolls down, but by then the rest of them have reached the downstairs landing and three other Dolls are attacking. Lian doesn't need Roy to tell her to stick close to Alfred. It doesn't matter that he's not her Alfred; Lian will protect him with her life if she has to. She has the bo staff in a ready position, and is looking for the best way down past all of the fighting at the foot of the stairs, when Alfred tugs on her arm. "It seems the lads are going to need some help."

Lian doesn't get a chance to ask what he means before Alfred is rushing down the stairs and Lian is forced to follow behind him, trying her best to protect him from any wayward swords and such. He makes his way into one of the rooms off to the left of the stairs where there just happens to be an old-looking shotgun inside of an even older-looking gun case. Lian wants to laugh, because it's so much like her own Alfred, but now's not the time. Instead, she stands ready to defend him as Alfred retrieves the gun. They're about to make their way back out into the foyer when a Checkered Doll cuts off their exit. This one Lian has fought before, she can tell by the ragged scar across the other woman's overly made up face. No amount of white face paint and dark red lipstick could hide the deep jagged mark that runs from the woman's nose down her right cheek, ending at her jaw line. Lian recognizes the scar so well, despite the red and blue make up in diamond shapes over the woman's eyes, because it came from one of her blades.

Lian sneers at the Doll who gave her one of her least favorite scars near her collarbone, and doesn't wait for the customary jeers before swinging the bo staff around, connecting with the Checkered Doll's head, and moving to sweep her legs out from under her. Though the woman is dazed, she doesn't hesitate to flip over Lian, landing in front of Alfred. Lian sees the Doll pull out a blade, but before she gets a chance to yell a warning Alfred bashes the woman's wrist with the butt of the gun, forcing her to drop her blade. The Doll doesn't get a chance to cry out in pain from the blow before Lian jumps onto her back, wrapping her arms around the woman's neck and cutting off her airway. The Doll struggles and fights, nearly knocking Lian off of her more than a few times, but Lian manages to hang on until the woman runs out of air. Once the Doll is out, Lian gets to her feet and moves to check on Alfred, who is standing by the door looking just as composed as always, holding his shotgun at the ready, and then the two of them make their way out of the room.

Lian and Alfred stick close together as they head into the fray, dodging blows and blocking when they have to. Lian sees two more Checkered Dolls heading straight for Dick and Roy, who are already a little busy. She nudges Alfred before pulling him in the direction of the two newcomers. The two of them race to intercept the two Dolls before they can reach Dick and Roy. When they are in range, Lian jump kicks the one closest to her directly in the face, knocking her into an extremely expensive vase and separating the two of them.

Alfred aims his shotgun at the other one, which distracts her just long enough for Lian to swing the bo staff around, connecting with the back of her neck. The Doll goes down with a loud thud, not expecting the blow. She tries to push herself back up, but before the woman gets the chance Alfred slams the butt of the gun down in the same exact place. Lian doesn't think that she's getting back up after that one and spins around to focus on the first Doll, who's back on her feet and pulling a throwing knife from her boot. Lian dodges the knife, and then moves in to take the Checkered Doll down. She feigns a jab with the bo staff, which the Doll brings her hands up to block, leaving her stomach unprotected for a spin kick that Lian delivers with as much force as she can muster. The Doll goes careening into the wall behind her, and Lian follows through with a knee to her gut. The Doll folds in on herself, and Lian brings the bo staff down hard, effectively taking her out.

Lian glances around to find Alfred, whom she spots helping Roy, and makes her way over to them. She drop kicks a Doll along her way, only to come up beside the one Alfred had just hit. Lian doesn't waste any time before sweeping the Doll's legs out from underneath her with the bo staff. She moves Alfred out of the way, and ends up beside Roy, who is using his robotic arm to block most of the blades. Lian really wishes that she had her arrows right now or even just her belt. Either way, a projectile weapon would be great right about now, because she can tell they are all getting overwhelmed.

Lian and Roy are trying to stay close together, which is working quite well, until Roy gets the attention of the group fighting Dick and Tim. She knows that it was a necessary evil, but everything gets much harder after that. The Checkered Dolls have far more weaponry than they do, but none of them are giving up. Lian is trying her best to keep from being separated from Roy, but there's nothing to be done when one of the Doll's throws a sword directly at her, and Lian has to leap to her left in order to miss being impaled by it. She's fighting off two of the Dolls when she feels a third grab her pony tail and throw her into a wall. She knows now's not the time to relive all of the arguments that she's had with Grandpa Bruce about getting a haircut, but her brain doesn't seem to agree.

She's still a little dazed when Roy grabs her hand and pulls her to her feet, but Lian's sure it's just because she's not used to having anyone who isn't her Uncle Tim come to her rescue. She shakes her head, and picks up her bo staff, and that's when she sees the Doll who had thrown her into the wall rush Roy. Lian wants to cringe at all of the damage being done to the manor, but she doesn't really have time to worry about it. She uses her bo staff once again to take out the woman's knee, and then kicks her in the face. Lian doesn't miss the look of pride on Roy's face, and it makes her so damned pleased that she could induce such an emotion in him.

Roy gestures for her to make her way over to where Dick and Tim are protecting Alfred, and she simply nods, fully aware that she's fighting that much harder in order to make him look at her like that again. Roy and Lian fall back into formation around Alfred, and then Dick and Tim take point as they make their way to the study. Lian is keeping as close to Alfred as possible. She refuses to be the reason that he gets hurt. When two more Checkered Dolls tumble out of the study, Lian wants nothing more than to take them out hard and fast, but she knows that Tim and Dick can handle themselves, so she stays put and keeps herself between them and Alfred.

She can't see Roy from where she's keeping Alfred safe, but she would know that particular female voice anywhere. Lian wants to leap into that room and go after Harley, but she knows better. Even without the various warnings she's gotten from Grandpa Bruce, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Barbara over the years, Lian knows not to go after someone she has such history with without a plan or backup. However, it's taking all of her control to stay put and keep the Dolls away from Alfred. Dick and Tim are fighting side by side, blocking blows, and flipping over each other, and Lian can't help but notice how seamlessly they flow together. She can't ever remember seeing two people work so well together.

Her thoughts get cut off there, however, because the Checkered Doll who was fighting Dick breaks away and starts attacking Lian. She's good with a bo staff…nowhere near her Uncle Tim's skill, but still she can hold her own, which is a good thing, because this Doll seems to want to push her to her limit. Lian's grateful that Alfred seems to know exactly where he needs to be for her to protect him, especially when she has no choice but to roll out of the way of a handful of throwing stars and comes up right in front of him once again. The Doll doesn't seem to be giving up, and Lian uses the staff to knock away a blade.

She's blocking as much as she can, but there's only so much room for Lian to maneuver, and she's not the least bit surprised when she ends up taking a blade across the face. The laceration runs along her right cheek, but it's not very deep and there isn't that much blood, which Lian knows means she got lucky. She smears the blood away with the back of her hand and makes a 'come on' gesture towards the Doll. The Doll grins evilly and moves in with a flurry of punches and thrusts with the knife. Lian manages to use the staff to her advantage, blocking and parrying most of the blows, until she can knock the knife away, and when the Doll is in the right position, Lian lets the woman rush her into a wall, and then slams both of her feet into the woman's chest. The Doll lands flat on her back on the floor, and Lian doesn't give her a second to recover before she drives her weighted boot into the woman's face.

Lian doesn't get a single moment to enjoy her victory, before her head shoots up at the sound of Harley's distinctive laugh, only to see Dick fall backwards with a knife in his chest. Lian screams and watches as Tim slides under the Doll he's fighting and gets to Dick's side immediately. She can't move. She can't think. This is all her fault. She knows that this is somehow some way her fault. Harley and her Checkered Dolls probably followed whatever the hell caused that spiraling green light to dump her here, and now another person is dying because of her. Lian can't take it. She wants to scream, throw something, and hurt someone so bad that she's practically vibrating with her anger. She can't handle seeing Harley Quinn taking another life, especially not another Dick Grayson.

Lian barely even registers Tim's warning to Roy, before she's moving towards the study, and when she gets inside to see Harley choking Roy, Lian loses it. She throws herself bodily at Harley, and then just starts kicking with all of her might. She has never been so grateful for the weighted boots than right now. Lian is only peripherally aware of the words coming out of her mouth, and all she can see is a haze of red, much like the blood coating Dick's chest.

It's not until she feels Roy's robotic arm wrap around her waist that Lian stops screaming and kicking, and by the time she realizes what's going on he's lying on top of her, covering her from some unknown danger. There's a loud whistle that she recognizes as Harley's call to her Dolls, and she wants so badly to get away from Roy and go after them, but Lian can't make herself move. After a few short moments, she thinks that Roy is finally going to allow her up, but before he can there's a flash and a bang and the sound of shattering glass, and Lian knows they got away. This isn't her first time dealing with Harley, after all.

Slowly they get to their feet and Lian goes to see if she can help Alfred with Dick. She doesn't need confirmation that they're gone anyway. Alfred is pressing a cloth to Dick's wound, and Lian kneels down beside him. "Is there anything I can do, Alfred?" She's sure that she sounds like lost and scared little girl, but she thinks that it's okay to be in this instance.

Alfred nods. "Go with Master Timothy and get the med bay ready. I'll have Master Roy carry down Master Dick."

Lian doesn't hesitate to go get Tim. He looks angry, frustrated, and tired, but most of all he looks as though he's going to sob. Lian doesn't even think twice about going over and giving him a hug. It's what she always does when her Uncle Tim has that expression on. He stiffens in her arms, before letting out a breath. "It'll be okay." He breathes into her ear, but Lian can tell that he doesn't believe it, so she merely holds him more tightly for a moment.

"Alfred wants us to go prepare the med bay." She releases him, and watches as Tim sucks in a breath and stands up tall. She can tell that he's just shoving down all of his emotions, but it's not something that she isn't accustomed to seeing, so Lian remains silent as she follows Tim down into the cave.

The two of them work in silence. After all, there isn't much either one of them can say. They're both worried about Dick, and Lian knows there are no words to help Tim right now. All they can do is tend to the simple tasks set out in front of them and hope the knife didn't hit anything vital. It's not long before Roy walks down the stairs with Dick draped listlessly in his arms. Alfred is right behind him. Roy places Dick on the metal table, and then backs away to allow Alfred and Tim room to work. Lian is standing on the other side of the cave just staring blankly as the two of them work together to hook Dick up to a bunch of machines. It isn't until Roy places a hand on her shoulder and squeezes that her focus drifts away from them.

He tries to give her a reassuring smile, but it's more of a grimace than anything else. "He'll be okay. Alfred and Tim know what they're doing."

Lian shakes her head frantically. "What if he's not?" The rapid movement tugs the skin of her cheek, and she can feel a trickle of blood running down her face, but Lian doesn't care. All that matters is that another Dick Grayson doesn't die.

Roy grabs both of her shoulders and forces her to still. "You can't think about that, okay? You just have to trust that he'll pull through. And you're bleeding. I'm going to clean that." He gestures toward the laceration across her cheek.

Lian shakes her head again. "It'll be fine. Just leave it."

Roy huffs out a breath. "I know you were raised by Bats, but I'm an Arrow and when things like this happen I need to focus on what I can do, and right now I can clean and bandage that wound, so just let me, okay?"

Her eyes widen for a moment. She remembers her father saying something similar once…at least, she thinks so. It's hard to know if she's actually remembering a conversation with him or if her brain is just inserting memories for what her Grandpa Bruce, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Barbara have told her about her father. "Okay."

He motions for her to sit in the chair by the computer, and Lian does so without complaint. He grabs a first aid kit from over near where Alfred and Tim are working on Dick, without disturbing them. Roy places the kit on the floor and then kneels in front of her. He grabs her chin gently and angles her face toward the light to better see her wound. He softly runs an alcohol wipe over the cut before pulling out a tube of liquid bandage and applying it to the laceration. Lian hates how sticky it is, and she hates how it pulls her skin taunt when it dries even more, but she remains still and quiet as he looks her over for more wounds. When he deems her all patched up, she gets out of the chair while Roy moves to put the first aid kit back, but he's halted by Lian's hand on his arm. "It's your turn."

Roy gives an almost smile as he shakes his head. "Nah, I'm good."

Lian folds her arms over her chest and huffs out a breath. "I may have been raised by Bats, but I was also born an Arrow, and I need to be able to do something just as much as you do, so let me do this."

Roy sighs as he ruffles her hair. "Okay, you win, kiddo."

Lian ignores the small ache in her chest at the use of that nickname and pulls out some more alcohol wipes and begins swabbing over all of the cuts over his arms and legs and the really nasty one near his collarbone. She then pulls out the liquid bandage and meticulously goes over every single wound. Once she's done, they both begin to pace the length of the cave, subconsciously staring at the med table where Dick is still lying unconscious. If he dies, Lian doesn't know what she'll do. She does know, however, that either way Harley Quinn will pay - one way or another.

The End (for now)


	15. Chapter 15

Roy doesn't know what else to do, but standing here doing nothing isn't helping Dick. He knows that, but he doesn't have a lot of options right now. It's stupid for him to go out looking for Harley Quinn on his own, and he can't take Lian with him. He won't be the reason she ends up injured or worse, and he can't pull Tim away from his work trying to save Dick. So, he's left simply pacing around the cave worrying that his best friend won't make it through. Lian is curled up on Bruce's chair, sleeping. She passed out hours ago, and Roy has spent the entire time transitioning between staring blankly at Alfred and Tim and aimlessly wandering around the cave.

The only reason Roy even recognizes the sound of the JL transporter is because he happens to be standing right in the center of the cave when Batman and Robin materialize in front of him. He just stares at them both, gaping, while he tries to find his voice. Of course, they would choose now to come back, because Roy's life is anything but simple. Bruce clearly isn't pleased to see Roy just standing in the middle of his cave, but before either one of them can get out a word out, Robin is pushing his way past both of them. "What are you doing here?" The kid's sneer almost immediately falls off his face when he sees Dick lying on the medical table.

However, it isn't Damian's voice that barks out, "What happened here?" And Roy just doesn't have the fortitude to deal with the Bat right now. Not while he's fairly sure that the rasping sound he's hearing is Dick struggling to breathe.

Roy is sure that he can hear voices around him, but he doesn't recognize any of the words; and it isn't until he feels a hand in his tugging him away from the scene of Alfred shoving a tube down Dick's throat that Roy realizes he's just been gazing vacantly, transfixed to the spot, watching helplessly as Bruce, Alfred, and Tim frantically try to stabilize Dick. He glances down to see Lian pushing him into Bruce's chair. He knows that he shouldn't be surprised that the commotion woke her, and yet, Roy finds that he is. She turns the chair away from everything that's going on in the med bay and just holds onto his hand tightly. "He's gonna be fine. You said he's gonna be fine. You said to focus on that, so focus."

Roy squeezes her hand for a moment and tries to calm down. However, before he gets a chance to even try to process everything, Robin is suddenly beside him glaring at the two of them. "Who is this girl and why is she in my father's cave?"

Roy sighs as he rubs his temples trying to ease his growing migraine. Lian, however, buts in before he can say anything. "I think a better question is how in the world this version of Batman raised such a rude child."

Roy blinks rapidly at her response. He wasn't really expecting these two to get along and be friends, but he also wasn't expecting…well, this. "Purple Arrow, that was uncalled for. Robin is just…"

"Purple Arrow," Damian scoffs at the name and grimaces. "As though there aren't enough of you Arrows plaguing the earth." He then turns to face Roy, who is holding his head in his hands and hoping that Bruce will deal with his little princeling. "And I don't need you to speak for me." Damian's signature sneer is firmly back in place, and Roy's headache is getting increasingly more intense every second. He knows the kid is just trying to distract himself from the fear of losing Dick, but Roy really doesn't appreciate how Damian is going about it. Damian spins around to face Lian once again. "And my father didn't raise me."

Lian smirks and crosses her arms over her chest. "Well, that explains everything."

Roy sighs heavily at the two of them. He's pretty sure that, since the other occupants of the cave are a little busy saving Dick's life, it's up to him to make sure the two junior members don't kill each other. "Okay, that's enough, you two. Damian, why don't you go see if Alfred needs anything, and Lian, why don't you…"

"Check and see if there have been any reports of anyone matching the description of your Harley or her Checkered Dolls."

Roy turns the chair around to find Tim standing behind him, and he can see how exhausted Tim is, but that's only because he knows him well enough to distinguish the signs. "Someone has got to put a bell on you Bats. How's Dick doing?"

"He's stable for right now, at least, but…" Tim glances down at both Damian and Lian, who are both staring up at him with very obvious hopeful expressions, and Tim merely shakes his head, clearly deciding not to finish that sentence. Instead, he gives Damian a hard look, as though commanding him not to argue with whatever he's about to say next. "Damian, go get some more blankets for Dick. We can't move him, and it's too cold down here."

Roy is certain that Damian is going to tell Tim to go do it himself, but the kid glances back to where Dick is lying motionless and heads out of the cave without a single word. Roy is too grateful for the reprieve to realize how bad the situation must be if the kid isn't even arguing. He slumps back farther in the chair while Lian stands next to him, surfing through various news feeds. It occurs to Roy that he should probably cede the chair to the person actually doing research, but he also can't force himself to move… not yet.

The world feels like it's crashing in on him, and Roy knows that it's only a matter of time before Dick's condition is no longer enough of a distraction to keep Bruce from noticing the girl wearing jeans and a t-shirt, who's using his bat computer like she owns it. Not to mention, Roy knows that it won't be long before Bruce demands answers that Roy, quite frankly, doesn't know how to give - because none of them have really been doing anything by the book since Lian literally appeared out of thin air. Roy watches silently as Lian scans over numerous news feeds at once, and transitions from watching various videos to reading over a variety of headlines seamlessly, as though it's the most natural thing in the world. It suddenly occurs to Roy that it's actually a little wrong for her to be so well adept at this type of research on a machine such as this, and before he can stop himself, Roy blurts out, "So, how different is this bat computer's set up from the one you have back home?"

If she's startled by his abrupt question, Lian doesn't show it. In fact, she doesn't even turn away from what she's doing. "Um, it looks like ours has a few more upgrades than yours and you seem to have some files that we don't, but, all in all, it's rather similar."

Roy hums, not really sure what to say to that. He's about to attempt more bad small talk to divert his attention from everything else going on right now, when they both pause to watch a particular video feed. Roy honestly can't believe his eyes for a moment, and then he taps Lian on her shoulder. "Make that bigger. I want to see where they are."

The camera is panning too quickly for Roy to make out anything in the background. He doesn't really blame the camera guy, because the two women on screen are fighting so viciously, and moving almost impossibly fast over various rooftops, that Roy is having problems following. Lian's Harley is on screen punching this world's Harley in the face and throwing her around like a ragdoll. The newscaster just sounds completely confused as he tries to keep track of the two women during their altercation. Roy definitely feels for the man, given how lost he's been throughout this entire ordeal. This world's Harley is putting up a good fight, but she's obviously outmatched by Lian's Harley, which makes Roy wonder who trained Lian's Harley. He doesn't bother asking, however, knowing that Lian probably doesn't know and that it doesn't really matter, in the grand scheme of things.

Instead, he's too fixated with watching Lian's Harley kick this world's Harley in the stomach before grabbing her by the dangling tails of her jester hat and slamming her into the ground. This world's Harley rolls out of the way of the follow-up elbow and flips to her feet in a way that painfully reminds him of Dick. Roy ignores the pang in his chest at that thought, and instead, focuses on the woman in her normal red and black attire trying and failing to evade the other Harley. This world's Harley's outfit is torn in various places, and red seeps down from the numerous wounds underneath the rips. There's clearly blood gushing down her white painted face, both from her mouth and the various lacerations all over her, but Harley doesn't seem too bothered by it. Roy can't help but think that if this world's Harley was smart, then she'd run away from, as opposed to towards Lian's Harley. But then again, he guesses the crazed look in the other woman's eyes is probably something this Harley is used to seeing. After all, she does willingly spend the majority of her time with The Joker.

The flying kick attempted by the red and black clad woman doesn't land. Instead, Lian's Harley grabs her counterpart by the ankle midflight and throws her to the other side of the roof. As this world's Harley struggles to her feet once again, her red and blue clad copy somersaults her way over to the other woman and kicks her back to the ground before Harley can get all the way back onto her feet. It's then that Tim maneuvers himself so that he's leaning around Lian enough to type. From what little of the screen that Roy can still see, he can tell that Tim is contacting Oracle and asking her to use her available resources to find any cameras in that part of Gotham that she can hijack for their purposes. Lian and Roy are both still watching this world's Harley's vicious beating when Tim leans back from the console. Roy doesn't know what Harley could have possibly done to garner the attention of her doppelganger, but he certainly doesn't envy her.

This world's Harley throws a punch at her red and blue-wearing double, only to have the other woman grab and twist her arm behind her back and rip off the other woman's jester's hat. Lian's Harley tosses her head back and laughs, clearly enjoying this encounter, as she grabs a handful of this world's Harley's hair and smashes the woman's face into the ground. Roy's eyes are suddenly drawn from the footage of the combat to a dialog box in the corner of the screen at the same time that Tim moves back to reply. He can clearly see Tim typing to Oracle and telling her to keep monitoring the situation before he abruptly turns to face Roy. "I've got their location. Let's go."

The two of them move to suit up before two very different voices yell at them to stop. Bruce's commanding Bat-tone almost drowns out Lian's indignant proclamation, but Roy hears both loud and clear. Bruce is the first to speak up, as always. "Someone explain what is going on. Now!"

Roy doesn't get a chance to say anything before Lian interjects. "Forget that, there's no way you two are going without me. I know her better than either of you. I'm a valuable asset and I won't be benched because of some stupid protocol, or worse, some ridiculous fear that I'll get hurt."

Roy sighs heavily and gestures for Tim to deal with Bruce while he handles Lian. He still doesn't think he has it in him to cope with the Bat right now, and facing Lian is just so much easier - even if Roy is still absolutely certain that he's doing everything wrong, at least he doesn't get a disapproving glare from her. "Look, this isn't about protocol. We aren't used to fighting alongside you, and that can very easily be used against us in a situation like this. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that every last one of us is emotionally compromised here. I don't think it's a good idea for you to come along, but you can certainly monitor us from here and feel free to give us any tips over the comm."

He can tell that she's going to protest. Hell, he would too if the situation were reversed, but they really don't have time for this. Before he can talk himself out of it, Roy gives her an apologetic smile as he quickly hugs her tightly, and then spins around to capture Tim's attention, only to see him glaring daggers at Bruce. "It's a long story. We'll explain later." Tim pivots away, but Bruce grabs his arm before he can leave. Roy can't ever remember Bruce doing that. In fact, now that Roy thinks about it, he's never witnessed Bruce not begrudgingly accepting Tim's decisions. He doesn't ever remember Bruce not trusting his third Robin's judgment, and it really makes him question what's changed between them, and when.

"No, the two of you are not going alone. I can only assume this all has something to do with Dick's current condition, and I won't risk the safety of another one of my sons." It's then that Roy realizes how much Dick's condition is really affecting Bruce. He doesn't know why he didn't see it sooner. After all, Dick is his precious, and most loyal, eldest, and Roy has known for years the lengths those two are willing to go for each other.

Tim stills and is completely frozen for exactly 30 seconds, looking as though he's never heard Bruce call him that before - and Roy honestly wonders if Bruce ever has…at least not when someone was dead or dying - and then Tim seems to hunch over and sink into himself for a fraction of a second before pushing his shoulders back and standing even straighter than before. "Debriefing you would take too long and you've been awake for too many hours dealing with the League crisis. You and Robin are both a liability right now. Stay here and take care of Dick."

Roy feels like he's just been punched in the gut. He doesn't think he's ever heard any of the Robins give Batman an order before, and he sure as hell doesn't appreciate the glare they both garner for it. "Then take the girl with you."

Tim's eyes widen, and Roy is fairly certain that his own expression mirrors Tim's. "What? But you don't even know who she is, and…"

"She's clearly a version of Lian Harper and familiar with the doppelganger. That's all I need to know." Bruce cuts Tim off before he can even finish.

The 'right now' isn't spoken, but Roy is positive everyone heard it anyway. After several moments, Tim and Bruce are still just staring at each other, and no one has moved an inch, so Roy takes it upon himself to break the tension. He throws an arm over Lian's shoulders and starts leading her toward the changing area. "It looks like you're coming with us, after all, kiddo. So, let's go suit up."

Despite everything, Lian manages one of the widest smiles Roy has seen from her since he's met her, and he can't help but smile back. She leans into his side as she glances up at him. "If that was my Grandpa Bruce, he'd follow us mere moments after we left."

Roy can't stop himself from laughing, and he's actually a little surprised by how good it feels. He still feels like his world is falling apart, but somehow, right now, in this instance, it doesn't seem so bad. "Oh, make no mistake, sweetheart. He has every intention of following us, and Tim knows it. That little argument was just Tim's way of getting out of having to debrief B before we leave."

Lian shakes her head and chuckles to herself for a moment. "Now that is something my Uncle Tim would do in a heartbeat." Lian grabs her suit out of the locker next to Tim's - which he had probably placed there after upgrading it - and then goes to get changed while Roy heads in the opposite direction for his own suit. Roy suddenly realizes that, for once, he's not dreading the possibility of fighting alongside someone who reminds him so much of his little girl - and all it took was his best friend being stabbed in the chest. It figures his life is just that screwed up all of the time.

The End (for now)


End file.
